2023年影响油气行业安全的三大趋势

据美国钻井网站报道，监测专家Senstar日前已经确定了影响2023年石油和天然气行业的三大安全趋势： 持续不断的冲突和物理安全威胁，新的人工智能增强技术，以及对网络安全威胁保持警惕。

Senstar产品经理斯图尔特·杜瓦告诉美国钻井网站记者：“地缘政治冲突、地区不稳定、潜在的地缘政治或生态恐怖主义，继续对油气基础设施及其人员的物理安全构成重大威胁。”

杜瓦说，“2023年及以后的一个具体重点领域是液化天然气基础设施的物理安全，包括工厂、出口终端和再气化设施。液化天然气基础设施的战略意义再怎么强调也不过分——在许多司法管辖区，物理安全系统必须在运营开始之前得到全面认证，这使得液化天然气设施成为具有大量安全要求的高价值目标。”

杜瓦指出，为了降低这些风险，油气公司正在投入大量资源来提高他们在发生物理安全威胁时检测的能力，通过改进的远程监控来保持态势感知，并缩短安全卫队的反应时间。

杜瓦说，“对于埋地管道来说，这意味着部署远程光纤传感器，可以将干扰定位和分类到几英尺或几米内，并将这些信息传递到中央监测中心。”

他补充说：“对于石油和天然气设施，新一代周界入侵传感器、低成本热成像摄像机和人工智能视频分析为安全人员提供了更好的态势感知能力，使他们能够在形势发展时采取快速有效的行动。”

人工智能技术，网络安全

杜瓦还强调说，涉及新人工智能技术的媒体报道在2022年受到了“大量关注”，并表示这一趋势将在2023年继续下去。

他说：“对于石油和天然气行业来说，人工智能驱动的深度学习有可能彻底改变基于数据的决策的各个方面，从地质调查到市场预测到入侵目标检测。”

“从本质上讲，人工智能是将经验智能添加到基于大型数据集训练做出的决策中。对于物理安全应用，人工智能增强的智能将导致安全和视频监控系统更好地决定什么是威胁，什么不是威胁，避免出现与假积极结果相关的干扰。”

杜瓦继续说道：“人工智能应用程序将继续在石油和天然气行业取得进展，特别是由于应用程序的成熟以及更容易部署。”

杜瓦告诉美国钻井网站记者，虽然油气基础设施的物理安全是最受关注的问题，但网络安全也是最受关注的问题。

他说：“事实上，由于独立系统日益整合，以增强能力和简化操作，实体和网络领域之间的分离正在迅速消失。”

他补充说：“恶意行为者，特别是在国家支持的层面上，可以利用网络安全漏洞来破坏运营，窃取知识产权，并将组织作为赎金要求的人质。”

“在组织层面，我们可以预期将继续关注全面的网络安全审计和最佳实践的实施，而在产品层面，我们将更加关注减少攻击媒介、解决漏洞和实施网络入侵检测软件。”杜瓦继续说道。 

沿中东地缘政治断层线的摩擦与日俱增

当美国钻井网站向全球风险情报公司Verisk Maplecroft询问今年油气市场的安全趋势时，该公司发言人提交了一份报告，报告指出，沿中东所有主要的地缘政治断层线，摩擦正在增加。  

Verisk Maplecroft分析师在报告中指出：“沿中东几条地缘政治断层线不断升级的紧张局势，有可能破坏中东的石油供应。”

分析人士在报告中表示：“在所有这些地缘政治断层线上的摩擦不断增加的情况下，风险不仅仅是针对能源基础设施和航运的袭击更加频繁。” 

“更广泛的地区对抗对全球石油市场产生广泛影响的风险也高得令人不安。”分析师们补充道。

根据英国石油公司对世界能源的最新统计回顾，沙特阿拉伯2021年的石油日产量为1095万桶，居全球第二。英国石油公司的统计审查显示，2021年全球最大的石油生产国是美国，每天石油产量为1658万桶。

李峻 编译自 美国钻井网站

原文如下：

Oil and Gas Security Trends in 2023

Surveillance specialist Senstar has identified three security trends affecting the oil and gas sector in 2023；ongoing conflicts and physical threats, new artificial intelligence-enhanced technologies, and remaining vigilant against cybersecurity threats. 

“The conflict , regional instabilities, and the potential for geopolitical or ecological-based terrorism continues to pose substantial threats to the physical security of oil and gas infrastructure and its personnel,” Senstar Product Manager Stewart Dewar told Rigzone.

“One specific area of focus in 2023 and beyond is the physical security of LNG infrastructure, including plants, export terminals, and regasification facilities. The strategic significance of LNG infrastructure cannot be overstated - in many jurisdictions, physical security systems must be fully certificated before operations can even start, making LNG facilities high-value targets with substantial security requirements,” he continued.

To mitigate these risks, oil and gas companies are devoting substantial resources to improving their ability to detect physical security threats as they occur, maintain situational awareness via improved remote monitoring, and reduce reaction times of security forces, Dewar noted.

“For buried pipelines, this means the deployment of long-range fiber optic sensors that can locate and classify disturbances to within a few feet or meters and relay this information to central monitoring centers,” he said.

“For oil and gas facilities, a new generation of perimeter intrusion sensors, low-cost thermal cameras, and AI-powered video analytics provide security personnel with improved situational awareness, empowering them to take quick and effective action as situations develop,” he added.

AI Tech, Cybersecurity

Dewar also highlighted that media stories involving new AI technologies received “substantial attention” in 2022 and said this trend will continue this year.

“For the oil and gas industry, AI-powered deep learning has the potential to revolutionize all aspects of decision making based on data, from geological surveys to market forecasts to intruder detection,” he said.

“At its heart, AI is about adding experiential intelligence to decisions being made based on training from large datasets. For physical security applications, AI-enhanced intelligence will result in security and video surveillance systems making better decisions about what is and is not a threat, avoiding the distractions associated with false positive results,” he added.

“Given their potentially game-changing benefits, AI-enabled applications will continue to make in-roads in the oil and gas industry, especially as applications mature and become easier to deploy,” Dewar continued.

While the physical security of oil and gas infrastructure is a top concern, so too is cybersecurity, Dewar told Rigzone.

“In fact, as separate systems become increasingly integrated, to enhance capabilities and streamline operations, the separation between physical and cyber realms is quickly dissolving,” he said.

“Malicious actors, particularly on the state-sponsored level, can exploit cybersecurity weaknesses to disrupt operations, steal intellectual property, and hold organizations hostage to ransom demands,” he added.

“At an organizational level, we can expect a continued focus on comprehensive cybersecurity audits and the implementation of best practices, while on a product level, an increased focus on reducing attack vectors, addressing vulnerabilities, and implementing network intrusion detection software will be prioritized,” Dewar went on to state.

Friction Increasing Along Middle East Geopolitical Fault Lines

When Rigzone asked global risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft what security trends it expected to see in the oil and gas market this year, a company spokesperson sent through a report which noted that friction was increasing along all of the Middle East’s main geopolitical fault lines.

“Rising tensions along several fault lines are threatening to disrupt the supply of oil from the Middle East,” Verisk Maplecroft analysts stated in the report.

“Amid increasing friction along all these fault lines, the risk is not just more frequent attacks against energy infrastructure and shipping,” the analysts said in the report.

“The risk of a broader regional confrontation with wide-reaching consequences for the global oil market is also uncomfortably high,” the analysts added.

According to BP’s latest statistical review of world energy, Saudi Arabia ranked second in global oil production in 2021 with an output of 10.95 million barrels of oil per day. The top oil producer in 2021 was the U.S. with 16.58 million barrels per day, BP’s statistical review showed.