Saudi Arabia is sure its 35,000 strong security force can protect its oil installations from the rising threat of terrorist attack in the region.

Mr Turki Al Faisal Saudi Prince said that a wave of unrest rippling across the Arab world this year has uprooted governments and laid fertile ground for terrorist groups. But the world's top oil exporter remains confident the billions spent on protecting its biggest export earner will still shield its energy infrastructure from any attack.

Mr Faisal said that with governance in Yemen, Libya, Tunis, Egypt, Syria and other nations in such tenuous states, the perfect conditions for terrorist cells to take root and conduct desperate, evil and anarchical acts are created. While the general picture of Saudi Arabia's surroundings is predominated by this great turmoil, at the centre of these many storms sits our Kingdom, which, I am glad to report, remains stable and secure.

Saudi Arabia which is thought to keep some redundancy in its oil export system as insurance against some facilities being disabled created a large industrial security force in 2006 after a failed al Qaeda attack on the world's largest oil processing plant at Abqaiq.

Prince Turki said that in 2009, around 85% of revenues were from oil and a surge in oil prices in 2011 should boost Saudi oil earnings to USD 300 billion this year and average around USD 250 billion per year for the next five years.

(Sourced from Reuters)