Whether you like it or not, we’re living in a world to which political violence is subtlety felt. According to latest Terrorism & Political Violence map from Aon, the year 2016 has brought around 14.2% increase in reported terrorist attacks. Majority of these attacks were against gas and oil industry – the commercial or private sector taking the most hit worldwide.
The reason for this is that, it plays a key role in driving government revenue and economic status. Additionally, the remote locations of key infrastructure add to play.
Oil is worth roughly 4.5 to 6.5 percent of the world’s GDP. This is an industry that is constantly under fire for it’s a highly valuable commodity. For countries whose economies largely depend on gas and oil sector, terrorist incident may result to a disruption across various industries.
This can almost instantly push up the cost of commodities while hindering economic growth in the process.
As a matter of fact, two countries especially Colombia and Nigeria were targets of 74% of all the attacks that took place in 2016.
As we enter the new era of political and global uncertainty, being able to understand the probable impact of terrorist attacks on the most valuable and sought-after commodity in the world becomes even more critical. WOT is well aware that this is a real issue and doing all possible actions and solutions to fight back.
Worldwide Impact of Attacks on Oil Industry
Terrorist attacks particularly on remote infrastructures similar to pipelines are the hardest to defend. At the same time, they are seen by violent political parties as a chance to weaken economies, exploit local grievance and undermine authority of governments. This is as per Bruce Jefferis, the CEO of Global Energy, Aon.
Back in 2016 again, terrorist attacks on gas and oil infrastructure were consists of nearly 42% of all attacks on commercial interests. Additionally, it serves as great illustration of how disruption to the local economic activities may have a big impact on knock-on cumulative impact.
Lessons Learned from Political Violence
As mentioned, political violence is subtlety felt. Militia and terrorist attacks targeting oil industry or any vulnerable infrastructures that could bring high level of damage and worldwide impact are expected to continue. If only politicians and other higher officials in the government understand and model complex, the chain of terrorist attacks and how every attack interferes supply chains can give them full picture of the situation.