BP responsible for security breach in Tigentourine site, senior official says

A senior official in “Sonatrach” blames “British Petroleum” due to the security breach in the life base of Tigentourine, where terrorists attack security agents and kidnapped employees.

Same official called upon the government to launch an investigation to uncover the reasons behind preventing security agents to have weapons and arms, especially since they belong to a private security company, that is charged to secure the site.

The expert in the systems of health and security (HSE) in the oil fields wonders, in his statements to Echorouk, about the reasons which pushed the British company, which is responsible for conducting the site, not to allow security agents to have arms inside the site, according to the Algerian laws since long years, and which distributed the mission of security in three levels, as security is ensured in level one by a security company, which has licence from the Algerian interior ministry, to be renewed every two years, as to be of a first class, through having a licence from the defense ministry to use arms.

Echorouk source explained that, the level two of security, or what is known as second circle, that is usually provided by forces of the national gendarmerie, and the third level is secured by police forces, when the company is located in an urban site, or armed forces when it is a military zone.

“Current laws obliged every level of security and protection in oil companies, especially where foreign worker, to inform the closest center to the company about any movement of cars or people in the area, before entering the site with about 50 meters, in order to confront any armed attack. All security sites inside the company should be safe with the help of an agent or gendarme, and this raised a series of questions about how did the cars of terrorists reach the site of Ain Salah easily and surprisingly with a dangerous degree? There is a need to know the way of reaching the main door, which is

supposed to close automatically?”

“Terrorists who carried out the attack have all the details of the site, circumstances of work, and data of timing of changing the patrols in the area, the transport of workers to the airport, and level of protection. Former General Manager of Sonatrach, Noureddine Cherouati, was fired from his job because he proposed a security company for SONATRACH, and stop^dealing with private security companies, which costs thousands of billions annually, without providing a real protection for the company’s sites”