Riyadh is no Baghdad!
The oil infrastructure is very well protected — not vulnerable to attacks here from any quarter. This was underlined last Friday when a major global catastrophe was averted as the Saudi security forces thwarted the suicide bombers from entering the world’s largest oil processing and stabilizing facility in Abqaiq. However, despite the failure the misadventure was enough to send chill waves across the global energy fraternity. And thus when the very next day, the US Commerce Minister Carlos Gutierrez met Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resource Ali Al-Naimi, Saudi Arabia, the world largest oil producer took the opportunity to assure the world largest crude consumer, the US that it “would ensure the flow of oil despite the terrorist threats.”
In fact within a few hours of the blast last Friday, Al-Naimi took pains to let the jittery global markets know that Saudi Arabia had plans ready, indeed at considerable price to itself, so as to continue crude supplies in case of any terrorist attacks on its facilities.
The huge facility at Abqaiq plays a pivotal role in the day-to-day operation of Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company. Almost 90 percent of the crude exported by Saudi Arabia from the Gulf is processed and pumped through this facility hence it is rightly termed as the global epic center of the crude industry. Being the world’s largest processing plant, it handles about two-thirds of Saudi Arabia’s output.
The production from the super giant Ghawar oil well, producing around five million a day, is also routed through the Abqaiq plants. Abqaiq has a capacity of processing almost seven million barrels of crude per day. Saudi Arabia’s largest crude stabilization plant is also located in this area. The crude flowing into the Abqaiq plants is stabilized first by controlling the levels of dissolved gas, natural gas liquids (NGLs) and Hydrogen Sulphide, before piping it to export docks through a network of pipelines for onward transportation to different parts of the world.
The attempt to blow up the plant was made despite heavy security measures. Stakes are indeed high and Saudi Aramco is apparently not ready to take any chances. The failure of the attempt however, underlined the fact that Saudi Aramco was alive to the threats it is faced with, in the changing geo-strategic environment.
In the immediate aftermath of the incident, some analysts started to draw parallels between the ongoing insurgency in Iraq and the extremists activities in the Kingdom, as both now appear to be targeting the oil infrastructure.
However, the analysts don’t seem to be making the right conclusions here. Unlike Iraq, where a considerable section of population, despite all the propaganda war, thinks of the foreign forces still as invaders and perceives the ongoing insurgency there as a legal resistance movement, extremists, in the Kingdom, have lost the support of the masses, even if it was available at some point in time.
Secondly, there is no civil war or lack of stability in the Kingdom. Saudi Arabia is not only stable, but is capable of handling the security situation very well. Although Saudi Aramco did not issue any statement after the attacks, yet in earlier statements it had assured the world that it remained “alert at all times” to secure the world’s biggest oil fields.“As the company is responsible for the world’s largest proven reserves of oil, Saudi Aramco is keenly aware of its responsibility (to protect workers and oil fields),” Aramco had said in an earlier statement.
“For this reason, Saudi Aramco trains and equips a security force that is professional and responsive,” it said. “Aramco claimed, and as it was proven at Abqaiq too, that oil fields and refineries are guarded by “multiple levels of armed Saudi Aramco security personnel working in close coordination with Saudi government security forces”.
Although no numbers are out as yet, Aramco President Abdallah S. Jum’ah had said in past that the company employed 5,000 security guards who used helicopters, boats, cameras and other protection equipment.
Further, regardless of threat levels at any given time, every employee and contractor has to present a company identification card before getting into any Aramco facility.
“Sensitive company facilities have additional security requirements for access, including electronic and visual screening similar to that found in sensitive installations around the world,” the company had emphasized. It is a different ball game in Saudi Arabia.
Indeed Riyadh is no Baghdad!
