Mexico says oil installations secure after threat

MEXICO CITY, Feb 15 (Reuters) Mexico said its crude oil installations were safe, after a Saudi wing of al Qaeda called for attacks on US oil sources around the world.

Mexico, which ships around 1.4 million barrels per day of crude to the United States, tightened security around its Gulf of Mexico oil rigs in 2005 in line with international norms, a spokeswoman at state-run oil monopoly Pemex said yesterday.

Mexico deployed ships, jets and helicopters to patrol its offshore oil platforms after the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. It added two armed warships to the patrols in late 2004.

''Since 2005, all Pemex's installations are certified under an international code of protection. A series of measures have been taken since 2005,'' a Pemex spokeswoman said.

The Mexican Navy, which guards Pemex's offshore platforms, said there was no immediate plan to step up security in reaction to the al Qaeda threat on oil interests in top U.S.

supplier countries Canada, Venezuela and Mexico.

''We have permanent surveillance in the area,'' a Navy spokesman said. President Felipe Calderon's office said it was evaluating the threat.

Mexico already has naval officers stationed on its offshore oil platforms -- the source of some 80 per cent of its crude oil output -- and an exclusion zone for ships is in place around them.

There has never been any evidence made public of al Qaeda activity in Mexico, which opposed the US-led war in Iraq and has a very small Muslim community.

US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff will visit Mexico on Thursday and Friday for talks with Mexican officials.

The latest threat appeared in the al Qaeda Organisation in the Arabian Peninsula's e-magazine, Sawt al-Jihad (Voice of Holy War), which was posted on a Web site used by Islamist militants.

''It is necessary to hit oil interests in all regions which serve the United States, not just in the Middle East. The goal is to cut its supplies or reduce them through any means,'' it said, also vowing new attacks in Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi al Qaeda wing was behind a failed February 2006 attack on the world's largest oil processing plant, the Abqaiq facility in Saudi Arabia.

Its latest message cited production wells, export pipelines, oil terminals and tankers as possible targets.

Canada is the biggest exporter of crude oil to the United States, followed by Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.

Reuters AD VP0432