Application of social network theory to prioritizing Oil & Gas industries protection in a networked critical infrastructure system |
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Authors: | C-L ChaiX Liu WJ ZhangZ Baber |
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Institution: | a Department of Industry Engineering, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao tong University, 800 Dongchuan Road, Min-Hang District, Shanghai 200240, PR China b Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Saskatchewan, Canada c Department of Sociology, University of Saskatchewan, Canada d Department of Sociology, University of Toronto, Canada |
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Abstract: | As a typical process industry, the Oil & Gas industries play a key role within a networked critical infrastructure system in terms of their interconnection and interdependency. While the tight coupling of infrastructures increases the efficiency of infrastructure operations, interdependency between infrastructures may cause cascading failure of infrastructures. The interdependency between critical infrastructures gives rise to an infrastructure network. In this paper, we apply social network analysis, an analytical tool used by social scientists, to study human interactions and to analyze characteristics of the critical infrastructure network. We identify Oil & Gas, Information & Communication Technologies (ICT), and Electricity as three infrastructures that are most relied upon by other infrastructures, thus these may cause the greatest cascading failure of the infrastructures. Among the three, we further determine that Oil & Gas and Electricity are the more vulnerable infrastructures. As a result, priority toward critical infrastructure protection should be given to the Oil & Gas and Electricity infrastructures since they are most relied upon but at the same time depend more on other infrastructures. |
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Keywords: | Critical infrastructures Oil & Gas Social network analysis Interdependency Vulnerable |
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