2006年VOA标准英语-Saudi Arabia Steps Up Security at Oil Faci

By Sonja Pace
Washington
09 March 2006

Saudi Arabia's oil minister says his country is stepping up security around its petroleum¹ installations, following last month's foiled terrorist attack.  In Washington, VOA's Sonja Pace takes a look at the importance and vulnerability of Saudi Arabia's oil installations and the potential impact on world economies if a future terrorist attack should succeed.

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Ali Ibrahim Naimi gestures as he talks to journalists prior to start of  conference of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) at the OPEC headquarters in Vienna, on Wednesday, March 8, 2006  
  

Speaking at the OPEC ministers meeting in Vienna, Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi said Wednesday his government has tightened² security around all its petroleum installations.  He said the move was prompted by last month's attempted suicide bombing of the Abqaiq facility - which is the world's largest oil processing plant and handles two-thirds of the Kingdom's overall petroleum output.

A local al-Qaida group quickly claimed responsibility for the Abqaiq attack and warned more would follow.

Speaking to VOA in Washington, Saudi embassy spokesman, Nail al Jubeir said the government obviously takes the threat very seriously.

"This is the lifeblood of the country," he said. "This is the lifeblood of the industrialized world.  We take it very seriously. They [the facilities] have been protected.  There are various levels of security, various perimeters⁴, high-tech⁵ security and if al-Qaida had a chance to go after them in the beginning, they would have."

Saudis gather outside gates of Abqaiq oil facility as an ambulance rushes in, Feb. 24, 2006  
  
Saudi-born Osama bin³ Laden⁶ has long sought to overthrow⁷ the pro-Western monarchy⁸ of his home country and over a year ago released a video calling for attacks on oil facilities as a way to bring down the royal family and cripple Western economies. 

Even though the Abqaiq attack was foiled, the incident sent oil prices up two dollars a barrel on world markets and prompted much discussion about the importance and vulnerability of Saudi Arabia's oil installations.

Energy analyst⁹ Gal¹⁰ Luft, of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, says market jitters¹¹ after the Abqaiq incident are no surprise and he warns a successful attack would have devastating¹² economic consequences.

"We are dealing¹³ today with an oil market that is extremely tight, Luft said. "There is no spare production capacity, outside of Saudi Arabia and if you have an attack against a Saudi installation that carries two, three, four, five or six million barrels a day, that means the only way the market can equalize itself is through uncontrolled increase in prices, and oil prices could really reach a very high level - way over 100 dollars a barrel."

Saudi authorities have battled Islamic militants¹⁴ for the past several years.  In Washington, independent security analyst Vincent Cannistraro tells VOA the government has been quite successful in its efforts. 

"We know that the al-Qaida cell that carried this out is really a very inexperienced cell," Cannistraro said. "Its [the local al-Qaida] leadership in Saudi Arabia has been devastated¹⁵ over the past two years.  There has been a succession of new heads of al-Qaida in Saudi Arabia as previous ones have either been killed or captured.  So, there are a lot of inexperienced people in the organization.  Now, that doesn't make them less zealous¹⁶ or less intent on carrying out violent activities, but it does make them less capable of doing it."

Cannistraro says he has no doubt militants will continue to try to strike Saudi oil installations.

Saudi embassy spokesman Nail al Jubeir agrees that there is no shortage of what he calls "fanatics¹⁷" willing to try.

"The terrorists' objective is to be able to crack security once and that'll do the damage.  We can't afford that," he said.

Al Jubeir said he could not provide details of just what new security measures are being put in place.  But in Vienna, Saudi oil minister Ali Naimi is quoted as saying that deploying¹⁸ surface to air missiles to guard against any possible attacks by air is part of the strategy.

1 petroleum   

n.原油，石油

参考例句：

• The Government of Iran advanced the price of petroleum last week.上星期伊朗政府提高了石油价格。
• The purpose of oil refinery is to refine crude petroleum.炼油厂的主要工作是提炼原油。

2 tightened   

收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）变紧； （使）绷紧； 加紧

参考例句：

• The rope holding the boat suddenly tightened and broke. 系船的绳子突然绷断了。
• His index finger tightened on the trigger but then relaxed again. 他的食指扣住扳机，然后又松开了。

3 bin   

n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件

参考例句：

• He emptied several bags of rice into a bin.他把几袋米倒进大箱里。
• He threw the empty bottles in the bin.他把空瓶子扔进垃圾箱。

4 perimeters   

周边( perimeter的名词复数 )； 周围； 边缘； 周长

参考例句：

• Examples include outdoor perimeters, traffic monitoring, tunnels, and car parks. 例子像户外围墙；交通监视；隧道和停车场。

5 high-tech   

adj.高科技的

参考例句：

• The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展，这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
• The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。

6 laden   

adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的

参考例句：

• He is laden with heavy responsibility.他肩负重任。
• Dragging the fully laden boat across the sand dunes was no mean feat.将满载货物的船拖过沙丘是一件了不起的事。

7 overthrow   

v.推翻，打倒，颠覆；n.推翻，瓦解，颠覆

参考例句：

• After the overthrow of the government,the country was in chaos.政府被推翻后，这个国家处于混乱中。
• The overthrow of his plans left him much discouraged.他的计划的失败使得他很气馁。

8 monarchy   

n.君主，最高统治者；君主政体，君主国

参考例句：

• The monarchy in England plays an important role in British culture.英格兰的君主政体在英国文化中起重要作用。
• The power of the monarchy in Britain today is more symbolical than real.今日英国君主的权力多为象徵性的，无甚实际意义。

9 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

10 gal   

n.姑娘，少女

参考例句：

• We decided to go with the gal from Merrill.我们决定和那个从梅里尔来的女孩合作。
• What's the name of the gal? 这个妞叫什么？

11 jitters   

n.pl.紧张(通常前面要有the)

参考例句：

• I always get the jitters before exams. 我考试前总是很紧张。
• The whole city had the jitters from the bombing. 全城居民都为轰炸而心神不宁。

12 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

13 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

14 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

15 devastated   

v.彻底破坏( devastate的过去式和过去分词)；摧毁；毁灭；在感情上（精神上、财务上等）压垮adj.毁坏的；极为震惊的

参考例句：

• The bomb devastated much of the old part of the city. 这颗炸弹炸毁了旧城的一大片地方。
• His family is absolutely devastated. 他的一家感到极为震惊。

16 zealous   

adj.狂热的，热心的

参考例句：

• She made zealous efforts to clean up the classroom.她非常热心地努力清扫教室。
• She is a zealous supporter of our cause.她是我们事业的热心支持者。

17 fanatics   

狂热者，入迷者( fanatic的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The heathen temple was torn down by a crowd of religions fanatics. 异教徒的神殿被一群宗教狂热分子拆除了。
• Placing nukes in the hands of baby-faced fanatics? 把核弹交给一些宗教狂热者手里？

18 deploying   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的现在分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Provides support for developing and deploying distributed, component-based applications. 为开发和部署基于组件的分布式应用程序提供支持。
• Advertisement, publishing, repair, and install-on-demand are all available when deploying your application. 在部署应用程序时提供公布、发布、修复和即需即装功能。