JIM LANDERS / The Dallas Morning News jlanders@dallasnews.com
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – This OPEC superpower – producer of more than 10 percent of the world's daily oil supply – is spending billions of dollars in manpower, technology and weapons to improve its oilfield defenses against terrorism 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.
Three terrorists in the al-Khobar attack were miles away watching the news on television by the time Saudi commandos launched a rooftop assault back at the compound aimed at capturing them and freeing their hostages.
In both al-Qaeda attacks, it took so long for security forces to respond that terrorists had time to hook dead victims to their vehicles and drag their bodies through the streets.
The 2004 attack on al-Khobar was especially embarrassing for Saudi security forces.
The leader of the assault said in an interview posted on an al-Qaeda Web site that the four attackers had initially planned to simply blow up their Nissan Maxima in a crowd at the al-Khobar Petroleum Investment Corp. center. But they had such an easy time getting inside that they abandoned the suicide mission in favor of working their way through the compound, killing non-Muslims in a bid to draw worldwide attention to their attack.
The cell leader gave a telephone interview to al-Jazeera television featuring an Italian hostage pleading for his life before he was heard being killed.
In the wake of the al-Khobar killings, Saudi King Abdullah ordered an all-out nationwide assault on the terrorists.
The leader of the cell that attacked al-Khobar was killed, along with dozens of others. More than 1,000 Saudis were arrested.
During the effort, Saudi officials said, U.S. and British warships in the Persian Gulf were made available to help the Saudi Navy thwart attacks from the sea.
To guard the country's oil facilities, the Saudis this year created a Petroleum Facilities Force made up of Saudi soldiers, sailors and police officers. Its job is to protect pipelines, the perimeter of oil fields and processing plants. Saudi security officials say the force now has about 9,000 of its planned 35,000 troops.
Still to come are a helicopter force crucial for pipeline defense and an air-defense system designed to thwart both suicide aircraft and missiles.
The Saudi government argues that its defenses are now stout and secure.
"Have you heard of any attacks lately?" asked Prince Abdul Aziz bin Salman, the Saudi deputy petroleum minister and a nephew of King Abdullah. "There is your answer."
Crude oil here is gathered from across the country, then exported from two industrial complexes on opposite sides of the country – Ras Tanura on the Persian Gulf and Yanbu on the Red Sea. Million-barrel storage tanks holding nearly $100 million of oil apiece line the Saudi shores at each location.
But first, the oil comes together through pipeline manifolds and gas-oil separation plants at Abqaiq, about 60 miles from the Ras Tanura export terminal. The Abqaiq facility handles more than 6 percent of the world's oil – an average of 7 million barrels each day.
To get the oil to the Yanbu tanks, pipelines 4 feet in diameter carry 1.5 million barrels a day under 800 miles of desert, cutting across Saudi Arabia's midsection to the Red Sea.
Dallas business consultant Jim Oberwetter, the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia until this summer, said oilfield security became a priority in U.S.-Saudi defense cooperation after the Yanbu and al-Khobar attacks led the State Department to advise all Americans to leave the country.
"The Saudis deserve great credit. They have solicited advice, listened, and made decisions to act in both their interest and in the interest of maintaining world energy supplies," Mr. Oberwetter said.
Deputy Petroleum Minister Prince Abdul Aziz said other countries now ask for Saudi advice on how to protect their own petroleum facilities.
"We believe we have taken every measure necessary to protect facilities and pre-empt any attempt," he said.
"We take a great deal of pride in being a secure and reliable producer."
The ultimate test of such defenses could come if the U.S. ever launches an attack on Iran's nuclear programs. Many Saudis both in and out of government say that's what might happen if Iran refuses to halt its uranium enrichment program.
A U.S. attack – or U.N. sanctions aimed at curbing Iran's oil exports of 2.3 million barrels a day – could tempt Iran to punch back by launching missiles against Saudi Arabia's oil fields. Any effort to blockade Iran's exports would require the Saudis to push up their own oil production to compensate for the shortfall on world oil markets.
When al-Qaeda began attacking the Saudi oil industry three years ago, the ramparts were not much stouter than a sand dune.
Three Saudi employees at the Yanbu refinery complex used their security passes to gain entry to the facility, where they attacked the office of Houston-based ABB Lummus and killed seven people. The terrorists roamed through the offices and residential areas of the Yanbu petroleum complex for hours before security forces killed them.
Al-Qaeda Web sites described the attack as a victory in a campaign to drive foreign workers from the kingdom.
In the most recent big al-Qaeda attack, in February of last year, the terrorists failed.
Some of the remaining leaders of al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia tried to hit the Abqaiq crude oil complex run by Saudi Aramco. At the time, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was urging his followers to hit oilfield complexes in order to damage Western economic interests. (Across the border, al-Qaeda in Iraq was in the forefront of the pipeline attacks that crippled Iraq's efforts to export oil through Turkey.)
At Abqaiq, the Saudi security forces were able to stop the terrorists before they reached their targets. After fighting their way through the first of three security perimeters, the attackers got lost, said a Saudi security source who spoke on condition of anonymity. "They were using old maps."
The assault, which raised world oil prices $2 a barrel, was cause for alarm, said Mr. Oberwetter.
"The Saudis fortunately deterred damage to the Abqaiq facilities," Mr. Oberwetter said, "but al-Qaeda penetrated the plant site.
"This assault was evidence to the leadership of Saudi Arabia that much more needed to be done to protect vital installations of all kinds," he said.
Two guards and two of the attackers died in the Abqaiq assault. A few days later, five attackers who fled the scene were killed in a shootout with police in the capital city of Riyadh.
While there have been no attacks on Saudi oil since Abqaiq, the terrorists remain a threat to the Saudi regime.
"It would be a mistake to believe al-Qaeda made its last stand at Abqaiq," says Mr. Oberwetter.
Comment: Like it or not, we, the USA and Israel must tread lightly with Saudi Arabia. Our economy depends upon an ongoing continuous flow of oil. The oil flow must be dependable. Both sides of this ideological fence understand what is in "play" and both recognize the dangers of overt actions. Thus, the motivation to stand up and "take care of business" is abated. However, there are excellpossibilities to deter Iran if the West would only unite-this is in fact the major issue facing the world today.
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