World Tribune.com

Saudi security budget zooms to $12 billion over threat to oil

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Tuesday, July 4, 2006

LONDON — Saudi Arabia plans to spend $12 billion for security in 2006.

The Saudi National Security Assessment Project said the sharp budget increase was attributed to securing the kingdom's oil sector. The kingdom has been facing an Al Qaida threat to oil wells and refineries in the Eastern Province.

The report said Saudi Arabia would spend $12 billion in 2006, an increase from $10 billion during the previous year. Most of the increase would be allocated to the Saudi energy sector.

"An attack on Saudi Arabia's oil installations would be a catastrophe, not just on a domestic level but rather a global scale, therefore the increase in the over-all security budget highlights the Saudi leadership's commitment to both eliminating the Al Qaida threat and ensuring stability regionally and globally," the project's managing director Nawaf Obaid said.

In February 2006, Saudi security forces foiled an Al Qaida attack on the Abqaiq refinery. Abqaiq processes about two-thirds of Saudi oil production.


Copyright © 2006 East West Services, Inc.

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