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.