U.S. says al Qaeda targeted petroleum last year

WASHINGTON  - Al Qaeda conspired to divert or oil well last year invited a rise in prices and trigger an economic crisis in the West, the American authorities, said Friday, in the final warning based on the intelligence of compound of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.

The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI sent an intelligence note this week to the Federal right sector companies, States and local performance and energy to awaken their interest to al-Qaida targeting oil and gas natural infrastructureThey said.

Despite the interest of al-Qaida targeting oil tankers and oil commercial infrastructure at sea, officials said no there was no indication of any specific or imminent terrorist attack being drawn.

Earlier this month, US authorities said al-Qaeda considered attacker the rail sector, in the United States on the 10th anniversary of the attacks of September 11 by describing the intelligence of hide Osama bin Laden.

Officials said that it is not surprising that the United States, found ideas for potential terrorist plots involving oil tankers and trains in the information entered by the US Navy SEAL commandos during the raid that killed the Chief of al-Qaeda.

Tankers were of interest to al-Qaeda as a potential target for a long time, an official of the U.S. said.

In 2002, al-Qaeda militants bombed a French supertanker, the Limburg, in the Gulf of Aden off the Yemeni coast. A man crew was killed and 90,000 barrels of oil were spilled. Five supporters of al-Qaeda were sentenced in 2004 to 10 years in prison for the plot.

An official said no specific attack method was identified in 2010 involving oil tankers and no there was no reference to a specific date or time of the threatened attack.

"We have no information of any terrorist threat imminent in the areas of energy and marine, but wanted to educate our partners of the alleged interest," Department of Homeland Security spokesman Matthew Chandler said.

"It is not clear whether all planning was conducted for the year mid-last", he said.

Chandler said there is no plan to issue a warning about an imminent or credible threat.