Algeria Attack A 'Wake-Up Call' For Energy Companies
A week has passed since the terrorist attack on a natural gas facility in Algeria, but risk analysts and security experts are still undecided about the incident's likely impact in the energy world.
The price of oil, a good indicator of anxiety in the energy market, went up modestly right after the attack, but then it stabilized. No energy company has suspended operations in Algeria, nor has any company announced it will hold off on future investments in North Africa, a key source of oil and gas supplies.
It may just be that governments and energy companies are still trying to figure out exactly what happened at the In Amenas gas field. The complex had not been attacked during decades of civil war in Algeria.
Success Of Raid 'A Mystery'
David Goldwyn, formerly the State Department's special envoy for international energy affairs, notes that the complex was surrounded by "a ring of steel."
"You had a tremendous amount of desert," Goldwyn says. "You had a perimeter far from the actual operations, and you had interior perimeters as you got closer to the operating facilities. So, frankly, it remains a mystery to me how it was that this group of terrorists was able to penetrate this."
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Algeria Attack Raises Security Alarms For Energy Firms