Alberta energy regulator guards against attacks on pipelines, oilsands, transmission networks

Alberta's pipelines, oilsands plants, transmission networks and energy processing facilities are increasingly attractive targets for terrorist attacks, says the province's top energy regulator.

 

As global energy supplies become ever tighter, world interest in Alberta's resources is growing.

The possibility that terrorists' interest is also growing has preoccupied Neil McCrank, chairman of the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board, ever since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in New York and Washington.

"We wondered if this might go further," McCrank says. "At that point, there was no deliberate plan how you protect the energy infrastructure." he said.

At a conference called Disaster Forum 2006 in Banff on Monday, McCrank was scheduled to outline the major steps that have been taken since then. They include extensive regulations for facility operators aimed at promoting security and creation of positions within the agency to monitor security plans and threats.

"We know that there is a huge infrastructure, that with the amount, the scope of it, could be vulnerable to some sort of attack," says McCrank. "The eyes of the world are on most of our resources at the moment. We'd better ensure that we can protect it as much as is humanly possible."

Terrorism experts say the value of Alberta's energy infrastructure as a terrorist target is substantial as the United States becomes increasingly dependent on Canadian sources of energy, particularly oil and gas. Canada is the No. 1 supplier of both fuels to the U.S.

"This will be a growing terrorist target, partly because there's a lot of pipelines, but perhaps more importantly because they all go southward," says Elinor Sloan, an associate professor of political science at Carleton University in Ottawa and an expert in Canadian security and defence issues.

The Energy and Utilities Board's initiative includes the establishment and auditing of terrorism mitigation and response plans by operators of critical infrastructure facilities. The board will be notified of threats with the help of an intelligence network that includes Emergency Management Alberta, Alberta's Security and Information Management Unit, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the RCMP.

"We believe that as a result of this preparation there is less risk that we ever have a terrorist attack on the energy infrastructure in Alberta," says McCrank. "We're prepared."

The energy board has the power to shut down plants if necessary due to a threat.

After the 9/11 attacks, the Alberta government created a Counter Terrorism Crisis Management Plan, a strategy in which the board plays a significant role through regulations, monitoring and auditing to ensure that operators have a plan to deal with potential threats. It's a big order.

The board has regulatory responsibility for more than 125,000 operating oil and gas wells; more than 25,000 oil and gas batteries, or storage facilities; more than 330,000 kilometres of pipelines; 20,000 kilometres of electricity transmission lines; 155,000 kilometres of distribution lines; 56 electricity generating plants, eight coal mines and 38 commercial oilsands plants.

(Calgary Herald)