DHAHRAN, Feb 25: As security forces look for people who planned the attack on an oil facility in Abqaiq on Friday, the local wing of Al Qaeda claimed the responsibility for the attack.

A ‘global’ catastrophe was averted when Saudi security forces thwarted an attempt by at least two suicide bombers to enter and blow up the world’s largest crude processing facility in eastern Saudi Arabia, 35 miles from the city of Dhahran.

In a statement posted on a website late on Friday, Al-Qaeda said that two of its members were involved in the attempt.

“Hero Mujahideen from the squadron of Sheikh Osama bin Laden succeeded …... in penetrating a plant for refining oil and gas in Abqaiq,” it said. The raid was within the framework of efforts by Al-Qaeda to prevent the theft of Muslims’ wealth by ‘crusaders and Jews’ and to force ‘infidels’ out of the peninsula, the statement added.

Security sources in Riyadh said that four militants and two security officers had died and two officers had been injured in the incident. However, official confirmation was awaited. According to sources, the blast after the shootout also resulted in injuries to eight workers, including some from the Indian sub-continent.

Mohammad al-Merri, a relative of one of the killed officers, told journalists that the terrorists had penetrated the first checkpoint leading to the facility. “They opened fire and killed two officers after the guards at the second checkpoint became suspicious of them.”

Every employee and contractor has to present a company identification card before getting into the oil facility. The incident took place despite heavy security at oil facilities in Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi oil minister assured the jittery markets soon after the incident that production continued form the plant, without any interruption, despite the attack.

The huge facility at Abqaiq plant plays a pivotal role in the day-to-day operation of Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company. It is often termed as the global epic centre of the crude industry. Most of Saudi oil is exported from the Gulf via this producing, pumping and processing facility. Being the world’s biggest processing plant, it handles about two-thirds of Saudi Arabia’s output. Ninety-three per cent of the total Saudi crude exports of 9.5 million barrels a day pass through the plants here.

Abqaiq has a capacity of processing almost seven million barrels of crude per day. Saudi Arabia’s largest crude stabilisation plant is also located in this area.