DHAHRAN, 25 February 2006 -- The Kingdom yesterday foiled a terrorist attack on its largest oil processing facility at Abqaiq in the Eastern Province.

Terrorists in two explosives-laden cars attacked the facility in the afternoon, but were prevented from breaking through the gates when guards opened fire on them. The vehicles exploded and killed their occupants. Authorities confirmed that two terrorists were killed and two guards severely wounded in the attack.

Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali Al-Naimi said the blast "did not affect operations" at the facility, denying an earlier report on Al-Arabiya television that the flow of oil was halted briefly after a pipeline was damaged.

The facility "continues to operate normally. Export operations continue in full," Al-Naimi said in a statement.

A statement from the Interior Ministry said the attack occurred around 3 p.m. "Two cars were trying to enter the oil refinery from one of the side gates. When security men challenged them, an exchange of fire between them and the officers broke out. The vehicles exploded near the entrance. No damage occurred to the oil refinery and there was no effect on oil production. A small fire broke out as a result of the explosion, but it was quickly dealt with," the statement said.

Interior Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki said the number of terrorist cars involved in the attack was two, not the three cited in some reports.

Asked whether the Interior Ministry has been able to identify the attackers, he said: "The procedure will take time. We have gathered evidence from the scene and it will be sent for analysis. There are also security measures that need to take place in the investigation. Only when the results come in can we determine who the perpetrators were and identify them."

The attack was the first by terrorists in the Kingdom targeting an oil refinery. Last year, Al-Naimi said security at oil refineries in the Kingdom was foolproof. The Abqaiq facility is the world's largest, producing some nine million barrels of crude oil per day.

Analysts said the success in foiling the attack showed the Kingdom's security measures are solid enough to protect supplies from the world's top oil exporter. "The events of today are another indication of how tight and impenetrable the existing Saudi security system is at the main petroleum infrastructure around the country," Saudi security and oil adviser Nawaf Obaid said. "To have a successful attack at such a facility is very remote," he said, adding that the operation was a "desperate mission" because there was no way they could hit their target.

Saudi Aramco declined to comment about the incident, but reiterated that it had solid security measures in place. Security forces use helicopters and patrol boats in addition to fences, cameras and motion detectors.

Aramco has said it has backup systems in place and the operational flexibility to ensure that the Kingdom could continue to produce oil and gas without interruption, even if an entire facility was taken offline, for whatever reason.

Kevin Rosser of the UK-based Control Risks Group said that while it was disturbing that militants could still take a plot to such an advanced stage, the operation was "reckless" from a strategic point of view in Al-Qaeda's efforts to win over the public opinion because oil is the lifeline of the Saudi economy.

"It shows that as the group fragmented under the relentless pressure of the security crackdown, there has been evident loss of strategic and tactical skill," he said. "Obviously it is disturbing that another attack happened but the fact that it was thwarted shows that Saudi Arabia's efforts to take security seriously have borne some fruit."

Rosser said that an attack was long anticipated at the Abqaiq facility and the fact that it was halted at a long distance from the intended target "demonstrates that security measures put in place over the years are effective."

Oil futures for April delivery jumped more than $2 after news of the attack triggered worries about supply from the world's top crude producer.

"It's all about perception. Just the idea of an attack in Saudi Arabia is enough to make the market jumpy," said Glenn Murray, an oil broker at GM Oil.

Most Saudi oil is exported from the Gulf via Abqaiq which handles about two thirds of the country's output.

"This (attack) just emphasizes fears over global oil supply security when we're already facing major ongoing risks in Nigeria, Iran and Iraq," said Gary Ross, CEO at PIRA Energy consultancy in New York.

US crude prices hit a high of $62.85 a barrel, up $2.31. They later eased back to $62.60 at 1537 GMT.

London Brent was up $1.87 at $62.41 a barrel. US blue chip stocks edged lower after the surge in oil price, which revived worries about high energy costs and inflation.

Oil prices had risen a dollar earlier yesterday as fears of deeper disruptions to Nigerian exports overshadowed the comfort drawn from brimming fuel stockpiles in the United States. Attacks on Nigeria's oil network have already forced Shell to cut output by 455,000 barrels a day, shutting in a fifth of the country's exports. Militants holding foreign oil workers hostage say they will continue attacks in the next few days.

Suspicions in the Abqaiq attack quickly fell on Al-Qaeda-linked militants. The attack came despite a string of victories for Saudi security forces in their fight against Al-Qaeda's branch in the Kingdom. It also came weeks after the Feb. 3 escape of 23 Al-Qaeda militants from a prison in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, though there was no immediate indication they were involved.

It raised fears militants adopted a new tactic -- trying to emulate Iraqi insurgents, who have succeeded in hobbling that country's oil industry with sabotage and attacks, said Dubai-based political risk analyst Youssef Ibrahim of the Strategic Energy Investment Group. "In Iraq they zeroed in on oil and this appears to be a creeping process," Ibrahim said.

On May 1, 2004, attackers stormed the offices of Houston-based oil company in the western Saudi oil hub of Yanbu, killing six Westerners and a Saudi before Saudi security forces killed the attackers.

Several weeks later, Al-Qaeda-linked gunmen stormed oil company compounds in Alkhobar, on the eastern coast, and took hostages. Twenty-two people, 19 of them foreigners, were killed by the time the siege ended.

In December 2004, Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden for the first time called on militants to attack oil targets in the Gulf to stop the flow of oil to the West.

© Arab News 2006