Suicide bombers in explosives-packed cars attacked the world's largest oil processing facility last night but were stopped outside the gates when guards opened fire, detonating their vehicles.
Al Qaeda purportedly claimed responsibility for the attack, the first on an oil facility in Saudi Arabia.
Guards began shooting when two cars tried to drive into the heavily protected facility in eastern Saudi Arabia, Interior Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Mansour al-Turki told journalists. Both vehicles exploded outside the first of three fences around the sprawling complex. The attackers were killed and two guards were critically wounded, al-Turki said.
Saudi Arabia's oil minister said the blast "did not affect operations" at the Abqaiq facility, but oil prices spiked on world markets already jittery about supply disruptions in Nigeria and a diplomatic standoff over Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Light sweet crude for April delivery soared to $62.83 a barrel, then eased back to $62.50, an increase of $1.96 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude futures for April jumped $1.81 to $62.35 on London's ICE Futures exchange.
The attack was the first on an oil facility in Saudi Arabia and it targeted one of the most important. The huge processing facility near the Persian Gulf coast handles around two-thirds of the country's oil output, according to the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration.
The facility "continued to operate normally. Export operations continued in full," oil minister Ali Naimi said in a statement.
The attack took place in a region where Saudi Arabia's Shia minority is centered, amid an uproar over the bombing of a major Shia shrine in Iraq this week.
But suspicions quickly fell on al Qaeda-linked militants, raising fears of a new tactic emulating Iraqi insurgents, who have hobbled their country's oil industry with sabotage and attacks.
Later, the terror group claimed two of its militants carried out the suicide attack. The claim was posted on a Web site frequently used by terror groups but there was no way to check its authenticity.
This "is part of the project to rid the Arabian Peninsula of the infidels," the statement read.
Saudi Arabia has been waging a successful three-year crackdown on al Qaeda's branch in the kingdom. Security forces have killed or captured most of the branch's known top leaders, most recently in gunbattles in December, after the militants launched a campaign in 2003 to overthrow the US-allied royal family with a string of attacks.
"In Iraq they zeroed in on oil and this appears to be a creeping process, since it is happening in Saudi Arabia," said Youssef Ibrahim, a Dubai-based political risk analyst with the Strategic Energy Investment Group.
The attack occurred around 3 p.m. local time, several hours after weekly prayers on a day off for Saudis. The facility operates around the clock, seven days a week.
A Saudi journalist who arrived at the scene soon after an explosion said guards exchanged fire for two hours with two militants outside the facility. He said that he saw workers repairing a pipeline. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.
Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya satellite television reported that the attackers' cars bore the logo of Aramco, the state oil company, which owns the facility.
With over 260 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, a quarter of the world's total, Saudi Arabia is OPEC's largest producer and the top foreign supplier to the United States.
The kingdom maintains crude oil production capacity of up to about 11 million barrels a day. The Abqaiq facility processes up to about 7 million barrels a day, 93 percent of which is loaded onto tankers for export.
Militants have attacked oil offices but Friday's assault marked the first time a processing facility or refinery has come under fire.
AP