OTTAWA,  Canada - The Canadian military is working on defense strategies for offshore oil and gas platforms to prevent attacks that may cause severe consequences, military officials said Wednesday.

Although there are no perceived threats now, the federal government has made preparing for such threats its top priority and various government agencies are working together to come up with defense strategies, Rear Admiral Dan McNeil said in the eastern port city of Halifax.

McNeil compared an attack on the structures to the marine equivalent of the suicide attacks in Washington and on the World Trade Center towers in New York on Sept. 11, 2001.

Off the shores of the country’s energy-rich Atlantic provinces,there are a lot of natural gas platforms and oil platforms, although only some of them are manned. Officials say an attack on any of the rigs could take many lives, cause severe ecological damage and cost millions in damages.

Source: Xinhua