Identifying Damages and Threats caused by Tehran Refinery and Their Impact on Environmental Security

Oil and gas refineries and petrochemical industries are resources that high and considerable sensitivity is applied over them in terms of safety and environmental protection in developed countries of the world, and according to environmental standards, establishment and construction of refineries within residential areas of the city without any environmental studies and assessments and with no confirmation of Environmental Protection Agency are not allowed. Urban development and population density have led to this issue that distance between existing refineries (including Tehran oil refinery) and residential areas has been reduced. Hence, the main purpose of this research is to identify damages and threats caused by Tehran oil refinery and their impact on environmental security in Tehran. The research main question: What effects have damages and threats caused by Tehran oil refinery on environmental security in Tehran? The research main hypothesis: Internal manmade disasters and external risks in the form of damages and threats caused by Tehran oil refinery affect environmental security of Tehran. This is an applied research and its method is descriptive. Data were collected using library and field studies. Research tool was questionnaire that its validity and reliability were respectively achieved by experts’ confirmation and Cronbach’s alpha. The study population included all employees with at least 10 years of work experience in the Ministry of Petroleum and managerial positions, elites and experts of Ministry of Petroleum, especially in HSE field that have priority to others, and their number was estimated 110. Sample size was determined 86 using Cochran formula and random sampling. The research results indicate that the most important damages cause by Tehran oil refinery that can affect environmental security of Tehran respectively include “emission of toxic substances and gases” and “ lack of required training among employees and occurring human errors”; and most important threats caused by Tehran oil refinery are respectively as follows: “ground invasion”, “economic threats” and “air strikes”.