Background
Colonial Pipeline Company is an industry leader of refined petroleum products transportation services. As part of the United States National Infrastructure, Colonial’s focus on their operational security plan was increased in the wake of the September 11 th terrorist attacks. The Colonial Executive Management Team sought the advice of outside experts in developing a plan to assess and manage security related incidents posed to the organization.

The Challenge
Colonial recognized the challenges associated with designing a plan to enhance the security of people and assets. However, Colonial believed that there was a cost effective solution to providing the highest level of safety to their two most important resources: people working and living on or around the pipeline and their physical assets.

Inocon Solution
The Inocon Group worked with Colonial to develop a scalable operational security plan designed to empower appropriate management and field personnel to solve security issues. This security plan, based on our Incident Management and Crisis Response (IMCR) program, is an operational solution utilizing intelligent based risk assessment (IBRA) to better inform the company of real threats to their business system. The IBRA is continually updated based on information from a number of internal, State and Federal sources. Security levels at all Colonial Pipeline locations can rapidly change to respond accordingly to risk, threats or incidents identified through the IBRA. The scalable plan provides Colonial with a structure that allows them to best mitigate potential threats and provides them with a framework to respond most effectively to any incidents.

Results
The integrated approach coupled with appropriate training has provided Colonial with the opportunity to involve state and Federal authorities as well as their field personnel to ensure threat and risk assessment is continually updated to best protect this infrastructure asset and the people who operate or live around the pipeline. The solution has provided confidence to the executive team that day to day operations remain with those best suited to handle them while ensuring appropriate communication protocols are in place to escalate issues when appropriate. With minimal capital expenditure, Inocon has assisted Colonial in developing operational solutions that ensure the safety of Colonial’s workforce, communities and physical assets is a primary priority throughout the organization.