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."