Where Saudi Oil Infrastructure Remains Vulnerable

By: Energy Capital Research Group
Harvest Exchange
January 24, 2018

Where Saudi Oil Infrastructure Remains Vulnerable

Missile You Like Crazy

Over a decade ago, I was involved in assessing the vulnerability of Saudi oil installations. The target was to determine risk factors in designing revised security protocols for virtually everything from field security, through processing, to tanker/pipeline shipments.

Then, the primary focus was Al-Qaeda and associated/related groups. Today, we are confronting a more nation-centered source and far more destructive potential.

A significant overhaul of safety procedures followed the release of that report. Nonetheless, a series of attacks/episodes followed that pointed toward a continuing problem. Aramco, the national oil company, remains tight-lipped on the number of attacks thwarted by Saudi security.

However, following an incident several month ago, which the company has still not completely explained, concerns are again being addressed. In late July of last year, a fire occurred at the large Yanbu refinery complex on the Red Sea coast. After several days of silence, Riyadh said it was the result of a power transformer blowing at a gate.

Yanbu is one of three main installations on the west coast of the Saudi peninsula, connected via the nation’s dominant pipeline system to the primary oil producing regions and operations in the east.

Unfortunately, there is another, more disquieting explanation. This one involves an H-2 Burkan (“Volcano”) medium-range missile fired from Yemen by Houthis rebels embroiled in a protracted civil war against the Saudis. This version had more regional media exposure, including headlines in Iranian newspapers. And Teheran ought to know.

The Burkan line of missiles is an Iranian version of a Russian Scud and has been provided to the Houthis. As indicated below, Yanbu is within the range of the Iranian missile… as are the capital at Riyadh and all of the producing oil assets in the eastern part of the country.

There is another interesting twist in the Yanbu affair. The Houthis have video of the purported missile launch and that video has been widely distributed through the Persian Gulf.

This is hardly a hypothetical exercise. In March of last year, the Houthis fired earlier versions of the Burkan at the King Salman Air Base outside Riyadh and at the main oil administrative complex in the Eastern Province at Dhahran.

As was the case in the Yanbu episode, the Saudi government said nothing for several days until the story had percolated in the regional media. Despite the first attack taking place on March 17, it was not until March 22 that there was any official acknowledgement of the events. On that occasion, the Saudis admitted it was a missile attack but said both had been successfully shot down.

As a “Scud-clone,” the Burkan family of missiles are not known for pinpoint accuracy. But launching in mass and targeting a broader area of installations may offset this.

Yanbu was also the scene of an earlier event, one of those analyzed in the report referenced at the outset of this ECRG Intelligence. On May 1, 2004, militants entered the offices of a petrochemical plant in Yanbu and opened fire on Westerners. Two Americans, two Brits, an Australian and a Canadian were killed in the attack, along with a Saudi National Guardsman. On May 14, 2004, a statement purportedly from Abdel Aziz al-Muqrin (Al-Qaeda’s Saudi chief) claimed responsibility for the attack on behalf of Al-Qaeda’s Yanbu cell.

Today, the Red Sea coast area including Yanbu remains a hotbed of militant activity in Saudi Arabia.

To continue reading this ECRG Intelligence Briefing click here: https://energycapitalresearchgroup.com/ecrg-intelligence/where-saudi-oil-infrastructure-remains-vulnerable/

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Originally Published at: Where Saudi Oil Infrastructure Remains Vulnerable