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

Iraq is OPEC’s second-largest crude producer, with proven reserves above 145 billion barrels concentrated in the southern Basra fields (Rumaila, West Qurna-1, West Qurna-2, Zubair, Majnoon, Halfaya), the central Kirkuk-Baba dome cluster, and emerging Kurdistan plays. Basra Oil Company (BOC), Iraq National Oil Company (INOC), Midland Oil Company, and IOCs — BP, ExxonMobil, Lukoil, CNPC, PetroChina, Eni, TotalEnergies — jointly operate Zone 1 / Zone 21 classified wellheads, GOSPs, and pipeline infrastructure across the country.

Equipment used in Iraq’s hazardous atmospheres is qualified to international Ex standards (ATEX 2014/34/EU, IECEx) under Ministry of Oil specifications and IOC technical-bid evaluation criteria. The Iraqi Drilling Company, South Oil Company, and EPC contractors building the Common Seawater Supply Project (CSSP), Basra refinery expansion, and Faw petrochemical complex require certified intrinsically safe devices for shift work and turnaround crews.

Major refining centres — the South Refineries Company (Basra, 280k bpd), Daura (Baghdad, 200k bpd), Baiji (310k bpd, under reconstruction), and the new Karbala Refinery (140k bpd) — operate Zone 1 / Zone 21 process units. Petrochemical projects at Faw and downstream gas-processing plants linked to the Basra Gas Company (BGC, a JV with Shell and Mitsubishi) extend the hazardous-zone footprint significantly.

The Basra Oil Terminal (BOT), Khor Al-Amaya Oil Terminal (KAAOT), and Al-Faw bulk export jetties handle the majority of Iraq’s crude exports and demand ATEX / IECEx compliant communication devices for tanker loading, mooring master operations, and HSE rounds across the offshore single-buoy mooring (SBM) infrastructure.