ADNOC Refining's Ruwais refinery complex, in Al Ruwais Industrial City on the western Abu Dhabi coast, is one of the largest single refining sites in the region. This page is for the HSE officers, shutdown planners and telecoms teams who need an explosion proof mobile phone for the United Arab Emirates' refining sector, where contractor crews and work permits arrive in large numbers at once. The IS-04Z1 is designed for Zone 1 and Zone 21 and is being certified ahead of its Q4 2026 launch. The IS-04Z1 is designed around intrinsic safety rather than a flameproof enclosure.
Launching Q4 2026 · certification and vendor documentation in progress
Ruwais is two refineries side by side. Press reports put the complex at around 840,000 barrels a day of crude distillation, split between Ruwais West, commissioned in 2015 as part of Takreer's expansion, and the older Ruwais East, whose roots go back to the industrial city opened in the early 1980s. Crude reaches Ruwais from the Jebel Dhanna terminal, which receives Upper Zakum and other grades. In 2018 ADNOC announced a Crude Flexibility Project to let Ruwais West process heavier and sourer crude, which meant new fractionators and residue desulphurisation reactors lifted into a working site. Refinery work is cyclical: long runs, then planned shutdowns when both refineries were taken down for maintenance in early 2020, and a continuing programme of tie-ins in between.
Refineries are where the gas group question is hardest to avoid. Four points decide what a handset must stand up to.
Hydrotreating and residue desulphurisation run on high-pressure hydrogen, which is gas group IIC. A group IIC design target is therefore not decoration at Ruwais: it is the reason the IS-04Z1 is specified to Ex ib IIC T4, and the certificate will state the exact scope when issued.
During a shutdown the contractor population and permit volume climb sharply, and so does the number of devices issued at the gate. A handset enrolled in the operator's console, carrying the permit and the site directory, shortens that issue and lets you wipe a unit at demobilisation.
A refinery round runs from distillation through pump rows to tank farms. The 4,000 mAh battery is specified to cover a shift and four-constellation GNSS puts a position on a photograph of a leaking flange.
Ruwais is coastal and hot, so sealing and temperature class both matter. IP68 and rugged build are the design answers; the temperature class on the certificate is what is checked against the area classification.
A shutdown contractor crew carries one device for permit status, isolation checks and photographed punch-list items. Enrolment lets the planner see what was issued and wipe it when the work closes.
An operator logs readings at pumps and exchangers, photographs seal weeps and calls the board operator from the unit, without carrying a separate radio.
Floating roof tanks and pump manifolds are Zone 1 or Zone 2 depending on the roof and duty. A positioned photograph attached to the work order saves a second trip to the tank.
National conformity comes through MoIAT's ECAS-Ex scheme, which builds on IECEx certification; with TDRA approval for the radio, these are in progress for the IS-04Z1 and none is issued. The second gate is ADNOC's own supplier registration, pre-qualification and In-Country Value scoring, which is separate. We cannot describe the internal criteria ADNOC Refining applies to handhelds, so ask the Ruwais procurement and HSE teams, and ask also whether contractors may bring their own devices during a turnaround or must use operator-issued ones.
No. National certification is a prerequisite for ADNOC's own vendor review, and neither is complete. SAMS has no approval, order or relationship with ADNOC Refining; this page describes design intent.
Evaluation units are for safe-area handling and management trials ahead of launch, not for classified-area use before the certificate exists. Contact SAMS with your operator affiliation to discuss timing.
Hydrogen is in gas group IIC, the most demanding group, because its ignition energy is very low. A handset marked only for a lower group cannot be taken into hydrogen service, so the group on the certificate matters for hydrotreating units.
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 United Arab Emirates. 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.
Tell us the zone, gas group and operator. We will send the datasheet and the certification schedule for your market.
