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Al-Qa’ida has called for terrorist strikes against Canadian oil and natural gas facilities to “choke the U.S. economy.”

An online message, posted Thursday by the Al-Qa’ida Organization in the Arabian Peninsula, declares: “We should strike petroleum interests in all areas that supply the United States … like Canada,” the No. 1 exporter of oil and gas to the U.S.

“The biggest party hurt will be the industrial nations, and on top of them, the United States.”

The same group, the Saudi arm of Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network, claimed responsibility for last February’s failed attack on the world’s largest oil processing facility, at Abqaiq in Saudi Arabia’s eastern province.

The attack was foiled when guards opened fire on the terrorists, blowing up their vehicles filled with explosives before they could get through the site’s gates.

The message is contained in Sawt al-Jihad (Voice of Jihad), the group’s online magazine.

A feature article, titled Bin Laden’s Oil Weapon, encourages operatives to continue to follow earlier directives from bin Laden to strike oil targets not only in Saudi Arabia but elsewhere, according to a translation by the SITE Institute, a non-profit U.S. group that monitors terrorist websites.

Three Western countries are mentioned in the call to arms: Canada first, followed by Mexico and Venezuela. Would-be attackers are instructed to target oil fields, pipelines, loading platforms and carriers.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service said yesterday it was aware of the posting, as is Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada.

“Do we think it’s a serious threat? I can’t get into that,” CSIS spokesperson Barbara Campion said.

Greg Stringham, vice-president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said the threat is similar to a posting made about a year ago, when an Al-Qa’ida-affiliated blog called on Canadian and U.S. jihadists to attack an Alaskan oil pipeline.

The new posting is “not singling out Canada – it specifically mentions Canada, but along with some other countries that are suppliers to the United States,” Stringham said.

“It’s not the first time that it’s happened, and we have no credible threat to substantiate it … but still we are taking it seriously and we’ve informed all of our members and contacts about that – especially those with critical infrastructure – to pay extra attention and be vigilant.”

The Alberta Energy and Utilities Board knew about the threat the day it appeared online thanks to information from Canadian intelligence agencies, spokesperson Darin Barter said.

“We’re aware of this,” he said yesterday, adding the warning wasn’t significant enough to warrant raising the threat level. “There was no evidence that pointed to any imminent or direct threat to Alberta infrastructure.”

Experts have long considered the U.S. dependence on foreign oil – and Al-Qa’ida’s evolving strategy to attempt to deny the United States access to its major oil suppliers – as that country’s Achilles heel.

A major supply disruption would send energy prices soaring. Had the Abqaiq attack been successful, some experts say, oil prices would likely have broken all records.

A catastrophic hit could bring transportation and other sectors of the U.S. and other world economies to a standstill.

“We should not be overly concerned at this exact moment; Al-Qa’ida as an organization has been severely weakened,” said Tom Quiggan, a senior fellow at the Centre of Excellence for National Security at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.

The posting appears to be “intended to send a message to its followers that they should consider a wider set of targets than just those in the Middle East,” he said.

It also is “an operational suggestion to the ‘home-grown’

jihadists and independent groups that follow the inspiration message of Al-Qa’ida. To them, it outlines a suggested list of potential new targets – Canada is at the top of that list.”

Since 2000, Quiggan said, Canada’s proven oil reserves have risen from about 5 billion barrels of oil to more than 180 billion barrels. That puts Canada in the No. 2 position as an oil reserve country, second only to Saudi Arabia and significantly ahead of such other states as Iraq, Kuwait and Iran.

“Sawt al-Jihad has correctly analyzed the oil importing situation of the United States and concluded that it is not just Middle Eastern suppliers that are important,” he said.

Martin Rudner, director of Carleton University’s Canadian Centre of Intelligence and Security Studies, characterized the posting yesterday as “very serious” and said “the highest levels in our security and intelligence community” have been aware of it since Friday.

He said Al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula are “a bunch of guys with capability and intent. I would ramp up my awareness, all the kinds of things that intelligence and law enforcement agencies are supposed to do.”

Because the Sawt al-Jihad article contains some operational details of the 2006 Abqaiq attack, Rudner said he believes it’s intended as a call to arms rather than a piece of alarmist propaganda.

Kyle Keith, director of operations for the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association, said companies have several emergency programs in place.

“The fact that this information is making the rounds and we’re sharing it shows our security programs are working … the sharing of information and the heightened awareness,” he said.

The Saudi group is believed to also have been responsible for a May 2004 incident in which attackers stormed the offices of a Houston-based oil company in the Saudi oil hub of Yanbu. An ensuing gun battle killed six Westerners, a Saudi and the militants. Several weeks later, gunmen stormed oil company compounds in Khobar and took hostages in a siege that killed 22 people.

Months later, in December 2004, bin Laden for the first time called on militants to attack oil targets in the Gulf to stop the flow of oil to the West.

A crackdown on the group by Saudi officials resulted in Sawt al-Jihad going silent in April 2005. Its resurfacing last week “appears to indicate that the Al-Qa’ida presence in Saudi Arabia is trying to reassert itself,” said Quiggan, who has held previous intelligence positions with the Canadian armed forces, the Privy Council Office, Citizenship and Immigration and the RCMP.