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| Arabia |
| Saudi forces thwart attack on oil facility |
| 2006-02-24 |
| Riyadh - Saudi security forces foiled a bomb attack on Friday against an oil gathering centre where two blasts were heard in Saudi Arabia's oil-rich Eastern Province, industry sources and residents said. Security forces thwarted an attempt to attack the center in Abqaiq using car bombs, the oil sources said. Residents of Abqaiq said that they heard two blasts near the plant and saw two burned-out cars outside. It was not immediately clear if the abortive attack was the work of suicide bombers. Dozens of security forces and civil defense vehicles were seen outside the plant in Abqaiq, 35km south of Dammam, the main city of the Eastern Province, and about the same distance from the oil hub of Dhahran. It was the first known attempted attack on an oil installation in Saudi Arabia, the world's top crude exporter, which has been battling a wave of violence by suspected al-Qaeda militants since May 2003. A Saudi security expert said last September that the kingdom, which sits on a quarter of global oil reserves, had boosted spending on the protection of its oil industry to as much as $1,5-billion (about R9,1-billion) a year. Saudi Arabia currently pumps around 9,5 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) and has an output capacity of 11 million bpd. |
| Posted by:anonymous5089 |
| #2 great: "we didn't accomplish anything, but get our guys martyred - but we claim total responsibility for that!" |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-02-24 22:31 |
| #1 THE Saudi branch of the Al-Qaeda terror network has claimed responsibility for the foiled attempt to blow up a major Saudi Arabian oil processing plant, in a message on its internet site. |
| Posted by: tipper 2006-02-24 22:02 |