‘67-km fuel pipeline from Subic to Clark easy terrorist target’

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — Central Luzon police director Chief Supt. Oscar Calderon warned yesterday that a 67-kilometer fuel pipeline running from Subic Freeport to the Clark special economic zone is potential terrorist target that could cause widespread devastation.

Armed Forces North Luzon commander Maj. Gen. Rodolfo Garcia also expressed concern over the fuel pipeline, saying it has become a "security concern" and that the military has already mobilized its forces to secure the length of the pipes.

"There is a serious need to secure that pipeline which has to be continuously patrolled," Calderon told The STAR after the Coastal Subic Bay Terminal Inc. (Coastal) signed here the other day an agreement with mayors of towns traversed by the pipeline but only for the purpose of securing the pipes from pilferages. The pipeline can pump 21,800 barrels of pressurized gasoline, aviation fuel, or diesel from Subic to Clark at any one time for commercial distribution to buyers, including gas stations. The pipes are 10 inches in diameter.

While he has already instructed police forces in the areas to be extra vigilant in securing the pipeline, Calderon lamented the failure of Coastal to coordinate with the police for security concerns against potential terrorist attacks.

The pipeline traverses areas, including populated ones, in Hermosa and Dinalupihan in Bataan, and Floridablanca and Porac in Pampanga. Earlier this year, a portion of the pipe was hit by a backhoe in Floridablanca, spilling out some 3,200 barrels of diesel which local residents gathered and sold. The pipes are about eight feet or more underground.

The pipeline was initially used by the US military to pump fuel from the former US Subic Naval Base to the former Clark US Air Force base which the Americans abandoned in 1991 and 1993 respectively. The pipeline was damaged in many points by the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo, but was revived later by Coastal and the Clark Pipeline and Depot Company (CPDC) which maintains storage facilities here for the piped-in fuel for commercial distribution. The two firms are subsidiaries of the El Paso Corp. based in the United States.

Engineer Raymundo Sunga, director for operations of Coastal, said that El Paso spent some $20 million to repair and replace about 30 percent of the pipeline which can pump 21,800 barrels, each barrel equivalent to 159 liters. It would take 24 hours for such volume of fuel to travel from Subic to Clark, he said.

Calderon said that a terrorist attack on the pipeline while pumping highly flammable fuel could be devastating. "The companies operating the pipeline should at least provide some help to police or military forces securing the length of the pipeline," he said.

Coastal signed here with the mayors of the affected towns a memorandum of agreement tasking local government units with securing the pipeline against pilferages.

Sunga downplayed more serious threats on the pipeline, stressing that at least 12 control valves could readily stop the flow of fuel in the pipes. He also said that the accident which happened in Floridablanca had been contained. — Ding Cervantes