Oil giant Saudi Arabia has warned shippers it will ban from its ports vessels violating maritime security laws which came into effect this month, an oil industry source in the Gulf said on Wednesday. The new measures, the most comprehensive maritime clampdown since World War Two, aim at guarding against sea-borne terrorist attacks on shipping.
Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, says its own oil tanker fleet is fully compliant, as are its huge well-guarded oil terminals on the Gulf and the Red Sea.
The source said the kingdom was insisting that all foreign-owned ships, including oil tankers, which dock at its ports also comply with the regulations, which came into force on July 1.
"This applies for everybody. They don't want a repeat of what happened to the French tanker (Limburg) off Yemen," he said, referring to the bombing of a French tanker off the Yemeni coast in 2002.
Saudi Arabia has been tackling a 14-month wave of militant violence which has targeted Westerners, government security forces and energy-related sites. None of its oil producing or exporting facilities has been directly attacked.
The new regulations, signed by 147 governments, require ports, stevedoring companies and owners of ships larger than 500 gross tonnes to draw up plans for responding to a terror threat, implement tighter security around facilities and train staff.