American Petroleum Institute releases statement supporting Pipeline Cybersecurity Initiative

The American Petroleum Institute (API) recently released a statement regarding the Pipeline Security Initiative announced jointly last week by the Department of Energy and the Department of Homeland Security.

“Protecting America’s energy infrastructure from cyberattacks is a major priority for the natural gas and oil industry, and a common goal that we share with DHS, DOE and TSA,” API Midstream Group Director Robin Rorick said. “Our natural gas and oil pipeline systems have been purpose-built to be highly resilient because the production, gathering, processing, refining, transmission, distribution and storage are flexible, with multiple fail-safes, redundancies, and back-ups.”

The Pipeline Cybersecurity Initiative will involve collaboration between the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and other federal agencies. The initiative aims to improve understanding of the cybersecurity risks facing pipeline infrastructure and address those threats.

“We applaud the Pipeline Security Initiative, which recognizes that as cyberthreats continue to evolve and become more sophisticated, so too must our energy infrastructure,” Rorick said. “This is a complicated and continually changing issue, and it will be best managed through a coordinated approach between industry and the federal government. To that end, we look forward to working with the Departments to advance the Initiative’s objectives on behalf of America’s energy sector. API members continue to invest in the security of their systems, and we are pleased to see a commensurate level of attention from our government partners as we confront increasingly sophisticated nation-state based threats.”

The initiative was announced at a meeting of DOE, DHS and the Oil and Natural Gas Sector Coordinating Council held last week as part of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month.