Energy companies warned to beef up security against terrorist attacks

Sam Fletcher
OGJ Online

HOUSTON, Feb. 5 -- In the long-running war against terrorism, energy firms must beef up security for employees at corporate headquarters, field sites, and travel routes in between, said a panel of four specialists Tuesday at the International Association of Drilling Contractors' annual health, safety, environment, and training conference in Houston.

Even so, Ronald H. Relf of the Pittsburgh-based Risk Mitigation Group told IADC members, "Some of us will be victims (of terrorists) in one form or another over the next few years.

"Security is a mind-set much like occupational safety. If you're not thinking in those terms, then you're not prepared," he said.

The first lesson that industry participants and all US citizens should have learned from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, DC, is to "expect the unexpected," said David Lattin, security operations director for the Americas at the Control Risks Group LLC, London. "Don't look for the same Sept. 11 scenario to be repeated the next time," he warned.

Although the US military seems to have succeeded in its strikes against the al-Qaida terrorist organization in Afghanistan, that group will be difficult to eradicate because it's loosely organized "more like a charitable foundation than a corporate structure," with connections to many other terrorist groups, Lattin said.

Various military security groups estimate that 10,000-70,000 terrorists have been trained by al-Qaida and dispersed around the world. "Although it's now harder for them to operate, they have long-term programs and can surface 2-10 years down the road," Lattin said.

Upstream oil and gas operations are especially vulnerable to terrorist attacks because they usually are at isolated locations and frequently are in countries that are the scenes of political, economic, or social unrest, the security specialists agreed.

"The threat by international terrorists is serious. But you can reduce your vulnerability by introducing doubt into terrorists' planning," said Ross Johnson of Air Security International, Houston.

But the time to plan and prepare for a crisis is before it happens, he warned.

That involves anticipating and analyzing all of the risks to employees and equipment at work sites and during travel, including potential evacuation arrangements and routes for both expatriate and local employees and their families, the security specialists said.

Such planning is necessary even in seemingly unthreatened locations. "If there is no terrorist threat, then watch out for volcanoes," warned Johnson, in a reference to the lava flows that recently forced evacuations near Goma in Congo (Brazzaville).

Contact Sam Fletcher at [email protected]