Thales is highly active in the Arabian security sector, with a deep influence in the protection of critical infrastructure including Mecca’s & Madinah’s mosques, oil refineries and petro-chemical sites. Moreover, state-of-the-art Thales e-security systems protect the country’s payment systems.

Thales is central to the protection of Holy sites, providing hi-tech integrated security solutions for Mecca’s and Madinah’s Holy Mosques. For the Jamarat bridges, Thales provides a traffic flow management system, which is built around an advanced information system incorporating smart image analysis technology.

As the number one oil exporter in the world and the second biggest exporter for natural gases (as part of the ‘Arab League’), securing oil and gas fields and sites are of critical importance to the Kingdom and the global economy. Thales Group secures fields, sites and installs fully integrated security systems for major clients in the city of Jubail, including Saudi Aramco and SABIC. Thales secures SABIC’s petro-chemical sites. Fence detection hardware, CCTV for intrusion detection & gate control and high-capacity video recorders are monitoring solutions provided by Thales. Saudi Aramco, the world’s top exporter of crude oil and natural gas liquids, has refineries with similar high-technology systems supplemented by video motion detectors.

Thales oil and gas security capabilities form part of Thales SHIELD. The system protects borders, people, information and physical assets against terrorism, organised crime, natural disasters and infrastructure incidents. State-of-the-art leak detection & location technology and pressure monitoring are also offered, improving pipeline productivity and preventing environmental damage. Moreover, the solution provides integrated training opportunities to improve pipeline management, consequently increasing productivity and security.

In information and communication systems security, Thales has been working for over ten years with Saudi Arabia’s Monetary Agency (SAMA) to secure the country’s electronic payment system.

In 2008, Thales announced that it had completed a security upgrade of the Saudi Arabian Riyal Interbank Express (SARIE) payment system for the Kingdom. Under the contract awarded by SAMA, Thales provided the end-to-end security components for the SARIE RTGS (real-time gross settlement) system which protects the 14 trillion Saudi Riyal (US$3.7 trillion) payment transactions made in the Kingdom every year.

Furthermore, in 2008, Thales announced that it was to provide BMKE with an instant EMV card issuance system, allowing banks’ branches to provide customers with a new chip and PIN card within ten minutes. The implementation of instant EMV cards at BKME not only provides cost and time-saving benefits but also offers the possibility of secure instant issuance of future ID and store cards.
 

Key Points

Critical infrastructure including Mecca’s & Madinah’s holly mosques, oil refineries and petro-chemical sites are secured by Thales.
Thales is a key player in the Saudi Arabian e-Security domain, providing the Saudi Arabian Riyal Interbank Express (SARIE) with solutions that secure the country’s electronic payment systems.