PB's General Manager: “Algeria will not become a new Afghanistan”

An official spokesman of “British Petroleum” admitted that the company did not believe that it is necessary to arm 200 security guards in Ain Amenas gas and life base.

American newspaper “New York Times” quoted Robert Fein as saying on Thursday that, the strong presence of Algerian armed troops and gendarmerie in the life base, is behind not thinking about arming security guards inside the gas base, justifying the presence of armed guards inside a gas site as a large threat if there was a gunshot by mistake, according to Mike Lord, General Manager of “Stirling” British security company in charge of protecting the gas and life base in Tigentourine, a BP and the Norwegian “Stat Oil” option, which raises many question marks after the armed terrorist attack.

Carl-Henric Svanberg, Chairman of the Board of Directors at “BP” said there is a risk in the sub-Saharan region, but pointed out that Algeria responded strongly when it sent special forces to end the siege on the gas area in Tigentourine in Ain Amenas.

“It is clear that the presence of a lot of weapons in the region and all kinds of fighters, it will be difficult, as it is difficult to predict whether the area will become a new Afghanistan, but this will not happen in Algeria certainly, since the response was

very clear.”

Officials in oil companies had predicted an increased security costs to very high levels, despite the fact that the energy sector is accustomed to working in dangerous places in the world, stressing through their participation in the largest annual meeting of the energy companies, held on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the International Davos Forum that there is a slowdown of investment in some new projects in North Africa after the attack on the Algerian gas base, last week and the electronic attack on the computers of the Saudi oil industry in 2012.

Experts who participated in the meeting, said that the oil industry is related to high political risks, but the recent events of Ain Amnas will lead to large revisions of security spending, which inevitably means a significant increase in costs amounting usually between 1 and 3% of the total costs of the oil and gas projects, though the security costs are not decisive in final investment decisions in oil industry, but it will rise with an exponential pace after high degree of dangerous threat.

Experts and heads of international oil companies warned of the retreat of oil investments in Algeria in the coming years due to terrorist threats, which requires the governments of North Africa, that suffer the threat of jihadist groups, smuggling and transnational crime, to make great efforts to attract investments in energy sector, according to the international energy agency.