JEDDAH, 29 May 2004 — Saudi Aramco’s chief executive has sought to allay Western fears over oil supplies and said the Kingdom’s oil fields and facilities are well-protected.

“Our company has 5,000 security guards to protect oil facilities, in addition to the state security forces deployed around them,” Abdullah Jumah said at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London on Wednesday.

“Land, marine and border forces are involved in the security operation to prevent terrorists and saboteurs from reaching oil facilities on land and sea,” Al-Hayat Arabic daily quoted him as saying.

Jumah said Aramco had always met oil market requirements on time and Saudi Arabia would have no trouble producing 12 to 15 million barrels a day.

But the Kingdom had no desire to replace Iraqi oil on the market.

“We don’t want to supply oil in place of Iraq. We want Iraq’s production to play its role in supporting its economy as well as world economies,” the Aramco chief said.

Oil prices edged higher yesterday amid nervousness about whether OPEC producers will agree to open up the taps or even suspend their system of output quotas when they meet next week.

The price of benchmark Brent North Sea crude oil for delivery in July rose 30 cents to $36.55 per barrel in late morning trading in London.

New York’s light sweet crude contract for July nudged up seven cents to $39.51 in pre-opening electronic deals.

In a previous statement Jumah downplayed the shooting rampage in a petrochemical complex in Yanbu earlier this month that killed five Western engineers and a National Guard officer.

Saudi Aramco said in the aftermath of the Yanbu attack it had not been affected by the incident and that operations were continuing as normal at all its facilities.

“These are individual” incidents, Jumah said of the Yanbu attack.

“It is unfortunate that they happen. We cannot take one incident and say that this situation (applies) all over the Kingdom,” he said.

“In terms of the security of our people and our facilities, we... have always been active... We have a huge security organization in the Kingdom,” Jumah said.

Saudi Aramco employs some 54, 000 people, including around 2,300 US and Canadian citizens and about 1,100 Europeans.