valdez, alaska
Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2003 9:38 pm
NBC News and news services
Updated: 6:52 p.m. ET Dec. 31, 2003
WASHINGTON - Oil tankers began moving out to sea Wednesday away from the port at Valdez, Alaska, as a precaution against a potential terrorist threat, Coast Guard officials told NBC News.
Other hazardous cargo, such as liquefied natural gas, has been kept at a distance from other domestic ports since the Bush administration raised the nation’s terrorism threat assessment last week to “orange,” or high.
Officials stressed that the tankers were moved away from Valdez as a precaution, not as the result of a specific threat. Valdez, the site of the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline Terminal, has been mentioned in intercepted communications between suspected terrorists picked up by U.S. intelligence in the past two weeks, the officials said.
About a million barrels of crude oil flow through the pipeline each day, about 17 percent of U.S. domestic oil production.
Updated: 6:52 p.m. ET Dec. 31, 2003
WASHINGTON - Oil tankers began moving out to sea Wednesday away from the port at Valdez, Alaska, as a precaution against a potential terrorist threat, Coast Guard officials told NBC News.
Other hazardous cargo, such as liquefied natural gas, has been kept at a distance from other domestic ports since the Bush administration raised the nation’s terrorism threat assessment last week to “orange,” or high.
Officials stressed that the tankers were moved away from Valdez as a precaution, not as the result of a specific threat. Valdez, the site of the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline Terminal, has been mentioned in intercepted communications between suspected terrorists picked up by U.S. intelligence in the past two weeks, the officials said.
About a million barrels of crude oil flow through the pipeline each day, about 17 percent of U.S. domestic oil production.