Saudi Arabia Works To Protect Oil Fields From Terrorism
December 5, 2007 by national
Filed under World Report
With one eye on al-Qaeda and the other on Iran, the Saudis know they are a tempting target for any group bent on disrupting the world’s oil supply and crippling the West. The country produces about 9 million barrels of the worldwide supply of 86 million barrels a day.
Already, al-Qaeda operatives have launched attacks on several oil compounds here.On May 29, 2004, 22 people were killed in a terrorist assault on the Persian Gulf compound al-Khobar, home to foreign oil company offices and many expatriate workers.
Another seven people – two Americans, two Britons, an Australian, a Saudi National Guardsman and a Canadian – had died less than a month before in an attack at the Yanpet refinery complex in Yanbu, a small oil-industry city on the other side of the country, overlooking the Red Sea.
The attacks led to a massive exodus of American and other expatriate oil workers and revealed glaring weaknesses in Saudi security.
