Exposed to wind and salt at the water’s edge
Europoort has little shelter. Sea air, driven rain and wash-down are the normal state of a jetty head or tank roof, which is why IP68 sealing and rugged build matter more here than any dust rating.
Netherlands · bp Raffinaderij Rotterdam
Explosion proof mobile phone for bp Raffinaderij Rotterdam in the Netherlands
Europoort is where the Nieuwe Waterweg meets the North Sea, and the bp refinery there works between crude jetties, process units and tank farms. This page is for the HSE, instrumentation and telecoms people who have to decide what an explosion proof mobile phone is allowed to look like when it is carried into that site in the Netherlands, and what a supplier should be able to show them. The IS-04Z1 is designed around intrinsic safety rather than a flameproof enclosure.
Launching Q4 2026 · certification programme in progress
Local approvalATEXATEX 2014/34/EU · Warenwetbesluit explosieveilig materieel 2016 · in progress
AvailabilityQ4 2026via authorised distributors
The site · Europoort
What is classified at the bp refinery in Europoort
The refinery sits at Europoort, at the seaward end of the Nieuwe Waterweg, which puts deep-water jetties, process units and tank farms inside one boundary. The classified area is not one zone but a mosaic: hydrocarbon vapour around pumps, flanges, sample points and tank roof seals; hydrogen where hydrotreating circuits recycle it; hydrogen sulphide where sour streams are handled; and sulphur or catalyst dust at the points where solids are moved. Which zone applies where is written in the site's own explosieveiligheidsdocument, and the operator's engineers own it. What follows is the general picture a supplier should understand before asking to be considered, not a substitute for that document.
Who is on the fence
- Operations
- Outside operators on rounds, panel operators in the control building, and shift supervisors who issue work permits.
- Turnaround contractors
- Mechanical, scaffolding and inspection crews, including Dutch maintenance firms such as Stork, arriving in large numbers for a stop.
- Jetty and marine staff
- Mooring crews, loading masters and ships’ officers during crude receipt and product loading.
- Neighbouring terminals
- Independent tank storage at Europoort, including Vopak, shares roads, pipe corridors and emergency planning with the refinery.
- Regulators
- Nederlandse Arbeidsinspectie, the regional environment service DCMR and the Rotterdam-Rijnmond safety region.
Classified units and areas
- Crude jetties and loading arms
- Open-air vapour zones that move with each ship; port facility security rules also apply.
- Tank farms
- Floating-roof tanks where vapour collects at roof seals and on the roof itself.
- Distillation and conversion units
- Light hydrocarbon vapour around pumps, heat exchangers and relief systems.
- Hydrogen circuits
- Hydrotreating make-up and recycle gas, where the gas group is IIC and the temperature class low.
- Sulphur and sour water handling
- Hydrogen sulphide exposure and, at solids handling points, combustible dust.
- Control buildings and offices
- Safe area; the handset is checked in and out of the classified boundary at the door.
Built for local conditions
Explosion proof mobile phone conditions at Europoort, in the Netherlands
A refinery on the open water at the mouth of the Maas is hard on equipment for reasons that have little to do with the zone marking. These are the four conditions that come up most when a site of this type reviews a handset.
IP ratingIP68
Battery4,000 mAh
Camera50 MP
OSAndroid 16
Hydrogen sets the gas group
Where hydrotreating circuits are present, IIC is the group an instrumentation engineer will look for. The IS-04Z1 marking target of II 2 G Ex ib IIC T4 is aimed at that, with the certificate to confirm it in due course.
No charging inside the boundary
A round that covers units, tanks and a jetty means a long walk to the nearest safe-area socket. The 4,000 mAh battery is specified for a shift with the camera and a work-order application open.
One handset, several rules
The camera is a gate question at a refinery. Android Enterprise management lets the site’s own team set camera, location and application policy from its existing console, so the answer to the gate is demonstrable rather than promised.
Work here · Europoort
How the work is organised, and what that asks of a handset
Turnaround01
A planned stop, with contractors by the hundred
A stop compresses months of work into a short window. Isolation photographs, job packs and sign-offs need to live in one system on one device that survives the shift, instead of a paper folder that leaves with the contractor.
Marine02
Crude receipt and product loading
A transfer runs to the ship’s schedule, not the shift pattern. The person at the loading arm needs a voice line to the control room, a camera for a manifold check and a position that GNSS can supply without leaving the vapour zone.
Operations03
Night rounds across a large site
Outside operators walk long routes alone at night. Positions from four-constellation GNSS, a data connection and a lone-worker check-in on the same handset replace the radio, the camera and the paper log.
Access · Europoort
What the refinery’s teams would ask a supplier for
We have no verified information about bp’s own supplier registration steps for this site and will not guess at them. The route is to ask bp Raffinaderij Rotterdam’s procurement and HSE teams what they require. The list below is what a Dutch refinery’s engineers would typically want in front of them, and what the IS-04Z1 programme is preparing.
Documents to prepare
- Certificate and marking
- The ATEX certificate and the full marking string, once issued, so the equipment can be entered into the explosieveiligheidsdocument with its selection reasoning.
- Dutch documentation
- Instructions and the declaration of conformity in Dutch, which the Warenwetbesluit expects for equipment supplied in the Netherlands.
- Device management
- A deployment guide for the operator’s existing MDM console, including camera and location policy.
- Service route
- Who may open, repair or replace a battery on an intrinsically safe device, and how spares are held.
Questions · bp Raffinaderij Rotterdam
Frequently asked questions
Will an ordinary phone ever be allowed at a refinery gate?
Many sites ban them in classified areas outright and restrict cameras in the rest. The operator’s own rules decide that, and an Ex handset with managed camera and location settings is the usual answer when staff do need a smartphone in the process area.
Which gas group does a refinery handset need?
It depends on the area classification, but hydrogen puts IIC on the table wherever it is handled. A target of IIC covers the lower groups as well, which is why the IS-04Z1 programme is aimed there.
Does contractor use differ from operator use?
Yes in practice. Contractors arrive for a stop with their own devices and rules, so a handset that the site can enrol, restrict and wipe at the end of the job is easier to admit than one it has to trust.
Enquiry · bp Raffinaderij Rotterdam
Ask about the IS-04Z1 for bp Raffinaderij Rotterdam, Netherlands
Tell us the site, the zone and gas group, and roughly how many handsets. The SAMS team replies by email with the datasheet and the certification schedule for Netherlands. The IS-04Z1 is pre-launch and certification is in progress, so there is no list price yet; indicative pricing is issued in writing against a stated quantity and site.
Enquiry · bp Raffinaderij Rotterdam
Launching Q4 2026
Evaluating the IS-04Z1 for this site?
Tell us the zone, gas group and operator. We will send the datasheet and the certification schedule for your market.