Security Issues

The Saudi petroleum pipeline and export network (and energy sector in general) has been a terrorist target. In February 2006, Saudi security prevented an attempted suicide bomb attack at the Abqaiq petroleum processing facility, after Al-Qaeda leadership called for renewed attacks against the country’s economic backbone. Nevertheless, energy infrastructure remains well-protected. Following the 2006 incident, the government increased the National Guard and military security force to approximately 20,000, in addition to the 5,000 guards employed directly by Aramco. In addition to direct security, Saudi Arabia is known to ensure export security by maintaining "redundancy" (i.e., multiple options for transportation and export) in its oil system, in part as a form of indirect security against any one facility being disabled.

Oil Exports and Shipping

Exports Saudi Arabia exported an estimated 7.3 million bbl/d of petroleum liquids in 2009 (7.5 million bbl/d in 2010), the majority of which was crude oil. Asia now receives an estimated 55 percent of Saudi Arabia's crude oil exports, as well as the majority of its refined petroleum product and natural gas liquids (NGL) exports.

In 2009, Saudi Arabia exported an average of 1 million bbl/d of petroleum liquids to the United States, (down from (1.5 million bbl/d in 2008) accounting for 9 percent of total U.S. petroleum imports. For this time period, Saudi Arabia ranked fourth after Canada, Mexico, and Venezuela as a petroleum exporter to the United States. Other major Saudi customers in 2009 included Japan (1.2 million bbl/d), South Korea (850,000 bbl/d), and China (839,000 bbl/d).

In January 2010, Saudi Aramco changed the benchmark that it uses for pricing crude oil exports to the United States. Saudi Aramco had used the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil price since 1994, but will switch to the Argus Sour Crude Index (ASCI), in part because the ASCI is viewed as being more representative of the U.S. Gulf Coast sour crude market. The following series of graphs break out the percentage of exports by destination for the three main categories of Saudi oil exports. (See App. 7)

Shipping Saudi Aramco's shipping subsidiary Vela International Marine Ltd. operates the sixth largest fleet of supertankers in the world, including 24 VLCCs (very large crude carriers), one Aframax class vessel, and four product tankers. In addition to tankers, Aramco owns or leases oil storage facilities around the world, in places like Rotterdam, Sidi Kerir (the Sumed pipeline terminal on Egypt's Mediterranean coast), South Korea, the Philippines, and the Caribbean.

The National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (NSCSA) is a public company, although the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of the Saudi government holds 28 percent, while the remaining 72 percent is publicly traded. The NSCSA fleet has a total of eight VLCCs, with plans to increase the fleet to 17 VLCCs.

Appendix 1. Vocabulary.

crude	сырой, неочищенный
revenues	доход, выручка
gross domestic product (GDP)	валовой внутренний продукт (ВВП)
target	цель, мишень
Subsequently	впоследствии, позднее, позже
to diversify	разнообразить
fertilizers	удобрения
state-owned	государственный
proven reserves	доказанные, подтвержденные запасы
policy-making	политики
consumer	потребитель
domestic consumption growth	рост внутреннего потребления
to spur	побуждать, подстрекать
domestic power needs	внутренние потребности в электроэнергии
interim	промежуточный, предварительный
effort	усилие, напряжение
power grids	электрическая сеть
сonsumption	Потребление
bbl/d	барр/сут
pace	темп , скорость
improvement	улучшение , усовершенствование , развитие
energy efficiency and current trends	энергоэффективность и современные тенденции
to maintain	сохранять, поддерживать
to estimate	оценивать, судить, расценивать
increment	шаг, прирост, увеличение
lease condensate	конденсат из попутного газа
natural gas liquids (NGLs)	жидкое углеводородное сырье
term	срок, период
сrude Streams	нефть на переработку
to consider	считать, учитывать,рассматривать, обсуждать
to reduce	уменьшать, снижать, сокращать
to comprise	составлять, включать, содержать
to require	требовать, нуждаться
to enhance	повышать, увеличивать
capacity	мощность , производительность, вместимость, объем
long-term goal	долгосрочная цель
to commit	поручать, вверять, совершать
offset decline rates	компенсировать снижение ставки
depletion	истощение
to underestimate	недооценивать, преуменьшать
assessment	оценка, определение, мнение
to renew	обновлять, возобновлять
throughput	пропускная способность, производительность
joint venture	акционерное общество, совместное предприятие
jet fuel	реактивное топливо
schedule	планировать, намечать
to relocate	переехать, перемещать, переселять
to re-launch	перезапускать
to prevent	предотвращать, препятствовать, мешать
suicide bomb attack	атака террориста-смертника
backbone	основа, суть, позвоночник
to ensure	обеспечивать, гарантировать
redundancy	избыточность, избыток
ranked	оцениваемый
benchmark	ориентир, стандарт
to switch	переключать, менять,
VLCCs (very large crude carriers)	танкер (очень крупные перевозчики нефти)
vessel	судно
fleet	флот