ENERGY & CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE CASE STUDY

Business Continuity and NIS2-aligned resilience for a major European energy and terminal operator

Energy and fuel infrastructure represents one of the most operationally critical and highly regulated environments in Europe today. Operators managing terminals, distribution assets, and cross-border energy supply chains face an escalating risk landscape shaped by cyber aggression, geopolitical volatility, operational disruption, and evolving regulatory resilience requirements.

Resilience Guard GmbH was engaged by a leading international energy and terminal operator with a multinational footprint across several European jurisdictions. The engagement focused on strengthening business continuity capability, cyber-physical disruption readiness, and alignment with European resilience obligations, including ISO 22301 best practice and NIS2-related resilience expectations.

For energy operators, resilience is no longer a supporting discipline , it is a strategic requirement tied directly to national infrastructure security, continuity of supply, and executive accountability.

The challenge: Continuity of Critical energy operations under disruption
The client operated large-scale terminal infrastructure supporting critical fuel and energy distribution across multiple countries. Their operational environment included:

• safety-critical terminal functions
• high dependency on OT systems and industrial control environments
• multi-site operational governance across national borders
• strategic reliance on third-party logistics and infrastructure partners
• increasing cyber exposure through IT/OT convergence

Senior leadership faced increasing pressure to ensure the organization could maintain continuity of supply even under severe disruption scenarios, including:

• cyber-enabled shutdown of terminal operations
• loss of critical utilities or infrastructure access
• physical security incidents
• supply chain and transport disruption
• regulatory escalation under European critical infrastructure directives

While continuity plans existed at site level, maturity was inconsistent across jurisdictions, and executive assurance remained limited.
The primary question from leadership was direct:
How can we ensure that terminal operations remain resilient, auditable, and recoverable under high-impact disruption scenarios across all European sites?

Resilience Guard engagement scope
Resilience Guard GmbH delivered an end-to-end resilience engagement structured around international standards and regulatory expectations. The program integrated:

ISO 22301-Aligned Business Impact Analysis (BIA)
We conducted structured BIAs across terminal operations to identify:

• critical activities supporting fuel distribution and loading
• operational dependencies and systemic bottlenecks
• maximum tolerable periods of disruption (MTPDs)
• recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs)
• minimum resource requirements for continuity

This ensured that continuity priorities were operationally grounded rather than document-driven.

Operational risk and disruption scenario assessment
Energy terminals face complex risk profiles extending beyond traditional BCM.
Resilience Guard performed structured operational disruption risk assessments covering:

• OT environment failure scenarios
• cyber-physical attack pathways
• infrastructure access interruption
• third-party service failure
• cascading supply disruption events

This provided executive-level visibility into the most severe disruption exposures across sites.

Crisis management and governance strengthening
A key challenge in multinational energy operations is fragmented crisis escalation governance.
Resilience Guard redesigned crisis management structures including:

• unified command and escalation protocols
• defined executive decision authority during disruption
• multinational communication governance
• crisis coordination between site leadership and corporate command

This ensured that disruption response could be executed consistently across jurisdictions.

NIS2 Resilience and compliance alignment
Although BCM frameworks are often developed independently, energy operators are increasingly required to demonstrate resilience compliance under NIS2 expectations for essential entities.
Resilience Guard mapped continuity and crisis capabilities against NIS2-relevant operational resilience domains, supporting:

• governance and accountability
• incident preparedness
• business continuity requirements
• cyber risk integration
• evidence-based maturity reporting

This produced a structured compliance uplift roadmap toward full resilience readiness.

Quantified outcomes delivered
The engagement produced measurable and auditable improvements across operational resilience capability.

Recovery Time reduction
Across critical terminal functions, the operator achieved:

• average RTO reduction of 35–45% through recovery strategy redesign
• improved restoration sequencing for terminal-critical loading operations
• defined recovery tiers for safety and supply continuity priorities

Resilience Maturity uplift
A structured maturity scoring model was applied across sites.
Initial assessments showed maturity variance ranging between:

• Level 2 (developing) at smaller sites
• Level 4 (managed) at more mature terminals

Following governance harmonization and roadmap execution, the operator achieved:

• group-wide resilience maturity uplift to Level 4 baseline across all critical sites

Audit and Regulatory readiness improvement
Resilience Guard’s framework produced documentation and governance improvements supporting supervisory expectations, including:

• ISO 22301-aligned continuity evidence
• auditable crisis escalation structures
• board-level reporting on continuity capability
• clear regulatory alignment roadmap for critical infrastructure resilience

Executive stakeholders reported significantly increased confidence in regulatory inspection readiness.

Strategic Impact: Resilience as infrastructure assurance
Beyond technical deliverables, the engagement shifted resilience from local continuity planning to enterprise infrastructure assurance.
The operator now holds:

• unified continuity governance across terminal jurisdictions
• prioritized recovery strategies protecting national supply continuity
• executive crisis leadership capability across multicultural environments
• structured investment roadmap toward full resilience compliance

Resilience Guard continues to be recognized as a trusted resilience partner for critical European energy infrastructure operators.

Related sector resilience expertise
Resilience Guard supports multinational operators across critical sectors, including:

• Telecommunications resilience and crisis preparedness
• Transportation and aviation continuity frameworks
• Pharmaceutical supply chain continuity programs
• Technology and distribution cyber resilience engagements

Explore our other sector case studies:
→ Telecommunications Case Study
→ Transportation Case Study
→ Pharma Case Study
→ Technology Case Study

Frequently Asked Questions : Energy resilience & NIS2

How does ISO 22301 apply to energy terminal operations?
ISO 22301 provides the international framework for business continuity governance, ensuring that terminal operators define critical activities, recovery priorities, and auditable continuity structures across sites.

What does NIS2 require from energy operators?
NIS2 introduces mandatory expectations around incident preparedness, continuity planning, crisis governance, and cyber resilience integration for essential entities such as energy infrastructure operators.

How can OT environments be integrated into BCM effectively?
Effective resilience requires continuity planning that reflects OT dependencies, industrial control disruption pathways, and cyber-physical recovery sequencing.

What measurable outcomes should energy operators expect?
High-performing resilience programs typically deliver:

• 30–50% RTO improvement
• increased audit readiness
• harmonized crisis governance across sites
• structured resilience maturity uplift

Book your resilience consultation
Resilience Guard GmbH supports critical infrastructure operators across Switzerland, Europe, and international markets with award-winning expertise in:

• ISO 22301 business continuity
• operational resilience governance
• cyber-physical disruption preparedness
• NIS2-aligned compliance resilience

Request a confidential consultation with our team.
→ Book Your Resilience Consultation