Risk in Oil Business

Author : Ajay Kumar

Chairman Fox Petroleum Group;

Oil Business can transform you – “From an Industrialist into a Terrorist before the eyes of LAW” . Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave! Either higher the goons against the goons or raise the arms against the goon but pay lawyer to protect you from law; This is the life of an Oil Man; Protection of Oil Asset and Oil Man’s life is costlier than the Oil Profit; What to do once an Oil man ends in oil asset; 

Safe and reliable energy is a vital link in the nation’s critical infrastructure. Oil and gas products play an important role in national economy, national security and are integral to the way of life. But no security is from Government to any Oil Man; Rather they will try to go Character Assassination of the Oil Man, if found anyways protecting Oil Asset from Goons or Terrorist;

Accident in Oil & Gas Industry is part of daily life, When I say "accident" perhaps I mean "crime." Crime against Oil & Industry has increased by 100%;Safety saves sickness, suffering, sadness – all are slogans; Do not depend on others for safety, even not on Government; All Governments since inception has not been able to secure themselves for life time in power, hence useless for us to ask security from Government; PRIVATE SECURITY IS ONLY THE OPTION FOR OIL MAN;

There is a trend among the multinationals to try and divest themselves of the risk and the other way find another safe haven for investment; And the bottom line for the contractors is that there are other places to do business with less risk; If sometimes, Oil Company Owners try to protect their assets, against the terrorism done by local goons or the government protected extortionist under police protection – it creates violence and – THE OIL WHO IS PROTECTING THE HARD EARNED OIL –NAMED AS “MAFIA”. 

Attacks on oil and gas installations have become the weapon of choice for local goons under police shadow and international terrorism, irrespective of the political system and social-financial boundary conditions of the society under attack, for example: (a) In Columbia the terrorist groups FARC and ELN have attacked the national pipeline Cano Limon-Covenas so many times over the past five years that it has become known as The Flute; (b) in 2004 Chechen terrorists have been able to blow up several pipelines in and around Moscow, Volgograd, Dagestan and Stavropol despite increased efforts by

the Russian security forces; (c) in 2006 the Indian terrorist group ULFA staged several pipeline attacks in the oil-rich region of Assam; (d) repeated acts of pipeline sabotage in Iraq cost the country just in the first two years since the invasion in March 2003 more than US$10 billion in oil revenues;(e) in Mexico six simultaneous attacks by EPR terrorists against oil and gas pipelines on September 10, 2007 caused severe supply shortages, leading to the temporary closure of several factories.

Oil & Gas is not Secured on the land below the land, in the sea or in the sky; Development and exploration sites are frequently located in remote areas, categorized by poor transport connections and communication to the authorities and the associated security infrastructure. If national security forces are supplied to guard the site, they are usually outnumbered by the attackers, who typically are members of the surrounding communities. Therefore these sites represent attractive targets for terrorists; Ships at sea are at risk of becoming targets for a terrorist attack for several reasons: Security Counter measures on board are usually limited to high- pressure water hoses or high-powered sirens to ward off potential attackers; Long-distance distribution of oil and gas is carried out by pipelines. These pipelines are built either above ground and therefore highly visible, or buried underground but frequently identifiable by markers placed above ground. In addition, auxiliary installations, such as compressor stations, are usually without any significant physical protection. The remoteness of the installations adds to their vulnerability from terror attacks.

Oil or gas exploration occurs usually in fields encompassing many individual exploration sites, stretching over large distances in remote areas. It is difficult to prevent intrusion from the outside, since attackers can use speed-boats 4WD vehicles or

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). Consequently terrorists can carry out coordinated attacks on individual oil and gas exploration sites within the field. The amount of explosives required for such an attack is relatively small (e.g., it is seen that 5 kg of TNT for a single site is sufficient), enabling one individual to carry several such devices at once.

Not only the asset of Oil man is in danger but at the same time Oil man himself is in big danger; Security should be paramount consideration without cutting the laws of the land; To be afraid is to have more faith in evil than in God, hence Oil man should not trust anyone but respect his own six sense and use “Self defense” which is the biggest weapon against any kind of terrorism and it is under the law of any country; Oil and gas private security forces are facing now new unconventional opponents such as terrorists (international and national), activists, pressure groups, single issue zealots, disgruntled employees, or criminals, whether white collar, cyber hackers, organized or

opportunists. These threats may come from insider activity, external action, or insiders colluding with external adversaries. These opponents use different attacks including car suicide bombing, mortar rain, rocket propelled grenade, improvised explosive devices (IED), ambushes, hostages, hijacking, kidnapping, computer hacking, information warfare, and so on. The attacks can be complex and coordinated and can exploit a combination of physical, logical (information technology), environmental, organizational and human weaknesses.

Chance takes are accident makers; hence, Prepare and prevent, don't repair and repent.