World oil majors bolster security
World oil majors bolster security
Sujata Rao, Reuters, London
Major international oil companies are on heightened security alert against attacks worldwide after the bomb blasts in Bali and Yemen, the firms said on Thursday.
Faced with the threat of an assault on their production, refining or oil and gas transportation operations, the companies have moved swiftly to upgrade security arrangements.
"The recent events in Bali and Yemen have forced us to reinforce security," said a spokeswoman at the Paris headquarters of French supermajor TotalFinaElf.
She declined to detail the new procedures but said they came on top of enhancements in place since last year's Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.
Total operates facilities in Yemen, where the French-flagged tanker Limburg exploded two weeks ago in what investigators say looks like a deliberate attack.
The company said it has offered its expatriate employees in Yemen the option of leaving the country.
The French company also has production in Indonesia, where the Bali bombs killed nearly 200 at a nightclub last weekend.
Oil companies in Indonesia have been on alert since last year when separatists bombed a gas export terminal in the rebellious Aceh province. Operator ExxonMobil closed the Arun gas processing plant for five months.
Senior executives at Royal Dutch/Shell, the world's second largest commercial oil company, said its staff had just been placed on heightened alert worldwide.
"There is a higher sense of awareness. We are on alert for any suspect movements," one executive said. Shell declined comment.
U.S. ChevronTexaco European headquarters in London said the company was being "extra-vigilant."
And a spokesman for BP said: "Obviously we keep abreast of the latest developments and continually revise our security arrangements."
Oil and gas facilities are considered high risk because they constitute both an economic and a political target.
"One reason is that oil is a valuable commodity in itself and destroying it has an economic impact and, second, a lot of the oil companies are very high-profile and are seen as representing their respective governments," said Jake Stratton, head of research for Control Risks International.
"A hit at Exxon could be seen as hitting at the United States."
The al Qaeda network blamed for Sept. 11 has also been fingered for the Limburg. The group this week appeared to praise the attack in a statement posted on the Internet, saying allies of the United States would "pay a heavy bill from their blood and interests."
The statement, on the www.jehad.net website that is believed to be backed by al Qaeda, said: "By using a US$1000 boat to destroy such a big tanker, one can assume the scope of risks facing the Western economic lifeline, oil, of which the region holds the world's vast reserves."