[Expez]

Guarding a refinery is at least doable in principle, but most oil is transported there by way of a pipeline. Guarding miles and miles of pipes in the middle of nowhere is going to be prohibitively expensive.

The Trans-Arabian pipeline for example is a whopping 1214 km (754 mi) long[0]!

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Arabian_Pipeline

[H8crilA]

Trans-Alaskan is even slightly longer (800mi/1300km) and more importantly totally exposed - it's overground for many hundreds of miles (because you can't bury a pipeline in permafrost, it would melt the permafrost and sink the pipeline, breaking it).

Bottom line is that crazy shit happens. There is no way to mitigate all the substantial risks.

[gruez]

>The Trans-Arabian pipeline for example is a whopping 1214 km (754 mi) long[0]!

FYI it's not in use anymore.

[johnrgrace]

Are you sure that guarding a refinery is doable in principle? One mortar crew in the back of a pickup truck gets within 5km of a refinery for a few minutes and the facility is burning. If someone can get access to a towed artillery piece that 5km goes up to 20km.

[mrfusion]

754 security guards on dirt bikes with radios? Maybe a helicopter on standby.

[DuskStar]

Ah yes, "dude on a dirt bike with a radio and rifle" - the supreme air defence asset of our time.

Seriously, this might work for stopping people walking up to the pipeline with explosives - but it wouldn't stop someone with an RPG, recreational drone or (lol) cruise missile.