Malacca Strait: Target for terror (oil, oil, oil, oil, oil, oil, oil, oil,

[donsu]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/FH11Ae02.html

While it benefits some parties to talk up the threat of terror - whether to gain a contract or a foothold in a foreign land - the Singaporean, Malaysian and Indonesian governments, burdened with monitoring the world's busiest strait, would like nothing more than to prove to the world that everything's under control.

Indeed, with 600 vessels and 11 million barrels of oil passing through the Malacca Strait each day, everything has to be under control.

-snip-

As flares pinkened the sky, soldiers parachuted into the sea and simulated a pirate chase in speed boats. If only it were for real, and a day earlier, when pirates toting automatic weapons boarded a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tanker off the coast of Indonesia and escaped with equipment.

If only. But what if? What if it wasn't pirates but terrorists who had attacked the ship? For terrorists, an LPG tanker would be a dream catch, just right for turning into a "floating bomb" to crash into a port or city.

-snip-
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very long article telling why and how the 3 countries are working together to keep the strait operating.

and

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/FH11Ae03.html

How it could happen ...
Fiction by Gary LaMoshi

Welcome back to Asia Times On Air's special coverage of "Fire in the Strait". I'm Gary LaMoshi, in Hong Kong.

For those just joining us, here's what we know so far. At approximately 8am local time today, about three and a half hours ago, a tanker traveling through the Malacca Strait waterway carrying highly flammable liquefied natural gas, or LNG, slammed into a second tanker loaded with approximately 2 million barrels of crude oil docked at a refinery in Singapore.

Both ships burst into flames, now engulfing the refinery. There have been dozens of casualties among both crews of the two ships and refinery workers. Firefighters are now battling to contain the blaze within the refinery complex.

Singapore's outgoing Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong has declared a national state of emergency and placed armed forces on high alert. He has appealed for calm. At the same news conference at which Goh made his announcement, Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew warned Singaporeans "not to jump to conclusions about this tragedy before we know all the facts".

Singapore has declared a six-kilometer exclusion zone around the fire, which in effect closes down the Malacca Strait to all traffic. The exclusion zone includes Indonesian and Malaysian waters as well, but those two countries have made no formal announcements about the zone. An Indonesian naval spokesman reached in Jakarta told us by phone that all traffic is proceeding normally through its portion of the Strait.

So far, that's what we know. Now we'll go live to Crystal Lim, on the scene in Singapore, for the latest details. Crystal?

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[snowFLAKE]

1. Well, as long as no Radioactivity is involved

There's absolutely nothing to Worry About.

OTOH, one might want to take note that This Scenario was not set in Japan's Crowded Waters. Could that possibly be because they Quite Sensibly reduce their need for Flammable Fossil Fuels by fairly large scaled adoption of Nuclear Power? Nah, in the long run, they'll all die due that foolish choice (if they don't die of something else first, of course).