Tracking hazardous materials and maintaining critical equipment is increasingly important to provide for public good while supporting public safety and homeland security initiatives. The petrochemical industry has been leveraging technologies provided by trucking and rail carriers. Where these have provided great visibility of large containers they do not provide visibility of individual items such as gas cylinders and specialty chemical containers.

In the petroleum industry equipment inspection and visibility of critical parts enable the industry to address the global requirements for efficient distribution of petroleum products. Passive RFID tags provide valuable tools for maintaining inspection records and tracking equipment in this vitally important industry.

Standard EPC Gen2 RFID tags are made up of an integrated circuit (IC or chip) and a passive tag antenna (together called an inlay). Most often these are integrated into a label material. The key differentiating features of these tags are antenna design and storage capacity; the same label “packaging” can be used on any standard inlay. Often referred to as "Smart Labels", these are the tags most associated with supply chain applications such as those promoted by Wal-Mart and the US Department of Defense.