ATEX Certified Explosion-Proof Mobile Phones for Azerbaijan’s Caspian Oil & Gas Sector

Azerbaijan is the historical birthplace of the modern oil industry (commercial production from Baku started in the 1840s) and remains the South Caucasus’ largest hydrocarbon producer. Operations are anchored on the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) offshore mega-cluster (operated by BP under a PSA with SOCAR, Equinor, ExxonMobil, INPEX, Itochu, ONGC Videsh, TPAO) and the Shah Deniz Stage 2 gas-condensate development — the source feeding the Southern Gas Corridor (TANAP / TAP) to Europe.

Equipment used in Azerbaijan’s explosive atmospheres is qualified to international Ex standards (ATEX 2014/34/EU, IECEx) under SOCAR’s technical specifications, BP’s Major Hazards Guidelines, and the State Service for Supervision over Safe Work in Industry (a Ministry of Emergency Situations agency) regulatory framework. Operators require ATEX, RoHS, and Zone 1/21 documentation for all Ex-rated equipment used offshore and onshore.

Major hazardous-zone sites include the ACG platforms (Central Azeri, West Azeri, East Azeri, Deepwater Gunashli, Chirag, West Chirag), the Shah Deniz Bravo platform, the Sangachal Terminal (the world’s largest oil-and-gas terminal complex), the Heydar Aliyev Refinery in Baku (the SOCAR Oil Refinery, undergoing modernization), and the upcoming SOCAR-STAR petrochemical interface. EPC contractors require certified intrinsically safe phones for SIMOPS.

Azerbaijan’s export pipeline corridor — the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) crude pipeline, the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP), and the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) — relies on compressor and pumping stations that require ATEX-compliant communication tools. The Sumgait Industrial Park and the Garadagh / Carlsberg petrochemical zone further extend the hazardous-zone footprint across the country.