Saudis 'foil oil facility attack'

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Saudis 'foil oil facility attack'

Posted: 2/24/2006 9:11:28 AM EDT

Saudis 'foil oil facility attack'

The Abqaiq facility is one of the biggest in the world
Saudi security forces have foiled an apparent suicide car bomb attack on a major oil production facility in the eastern town of Abqaiq.
Guards opened fire on at least two cars carrying explosives as they tried to ram the gates, Saudi officials said.

BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says the attack is the first direct assault on Saudi oil production.

The al-Qaeda network on the Arabian Peninsula has long called for attacks on Saudi oil installations.

Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi said output at the facility, which handles about two-thirds of the country's oil production, was unaffected by the attack.

Click here for a map of Saudi Arabia's oil and gas pipelines
Oil security analysts have estimated that a serious attack on the facility could halve Saudi exports for up to a year.

On news of the attack, the price of crude oil for April delivery leapt as much as 3.4% to $62.60 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, its biggest gain since 17 January.

An oil industry expert told the BBC News website that Abqaiq is an extremely important gathering point for crude oil coming in from several large oil fields.

There the oil is processed to remove gas and render it less volatile.

'Gun battle'

Saudi officials said at least two cars packed with explosives tried to ram the gates of the facility in the eastern province of Dammam.

Security guards opened fire, causing at least one of the vehicles to explode, killing the occupants.

Three Saudi guards are said to have been critically wounded

Mr al-Nuaimi said the blast caused a "small fire", which was brought under control.

He denied earlier reports on al-Arabiya television that the attacks had briefly stopped the flow of oil after a pipeline was damaged.

The cars carried the logo for Aramco, the state oil company.

The Associated Press news agency quoted an unnamed Saudi journalist as saying guards battled with two other militants outside the plant for two hours.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but last September al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri called for attacks on oil facilities, saying oil revenues went to what he called "the enemies of Islam".

Saudi Arabia has been fighting Islamic militants in the country for the past three years.

Attackers have previously targeted oil company offices and compounds housing Westerners, while Saudi security forces have killed dozens of insurgents.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4747488.stm

Posted: 2/24/2006 9:12:08 AM EDT

[#1]

Interesting.

Posted: 2/24/2006 9:17:57 AM EDT

[#2]

At least as they tried to put the fire out we didn't hear the stock, "No one could have foreseen this" that seems to be repeated all too often.

Wonder how they do with levees?

Posted: 2/24/2006 9:25:41 AM EDT

[#3]

One of the side consequesnces of the war on terror. By exerting pressure on our arab "allies" in the region to crack down on their home grown terrorists, we turn them against each other. More attacks internally in SA leads to more of a crackdown which leads to more attacks, etc.

Posted: 2/24/2006 9:30:16 AM EDT

[#4]

Quoted:
One of the side consequesnces of the war on terror. By exerting pressure on our arab "allies" in the region to crack down on their home grown terrorists, we turn them against each other. More attacks internally in SA leads to more of a crackdown which leads to more attacks, etc.

They'll "crack down" and whack a few meaningless low level drones but that's it.

The house of Saud has dirty hands.

Posted: 2/24/2006 9:32:01 AM EDT

[#5]

I think it is only a matter of time before Saudi either

A) backs off their support of us in stopping attacks

or

B) Falls into full blown civil war over this stuff

I dont see it happening any other way

Posted: 2/24/2006 9:35:00 AM EDT

[#6]

output at the facility, which handles about two-thirds of the country's oil production, was unaffected by the attack.
...
On news of the attack, the price of crude oil for April delivery leapt as much as 3.4% to $62.60

Posted: 2/24/2006 9:38:11 AM EDT

[#7]

Very interesting.

As Daniel Pipes says, quite often, 'the answer to Radical Islam...is Moderate Islam.'

Let's see if that's true.

Eric The(Intrigued)Hun

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Saudis 'foil oil facility attack'

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