The FBI issued an advisory Wednesday in response to intelligence it received that oil refineries in Texas may be targeted for terrorist attacks. An FBI spokesman told the Houston Chronicle that the agency's Houston office has been meeting with officials of local law enforcement agencies and oil refineries. "It's prudent and responsible to analyze and share what we have," he said. "When you look across the country, this is obviously something we just can't dismiss."

The possible terror attacks could come around elections this November, but there are no specific, corroborated details of any potential threats, FBI and industry sources said today. An FBI official who declined to provide details of the advisory noted that the agency has processed 7,000 threats in the last year, and added, "These communications go out on a daily basis." But a petroleum industry source in Texas who has seen the notification said, "The alert mentioned threats to pipelines and facilities in Texas to coincide with the election in November."

The source said there have been at least a half dozen of these types of warnings from the FBI in Texas since last summer. U.S. retail gasoline prices soared to a record-high this week on tight supplies. Any damage to a major refinery or pipeline would constrict supplies even more. But news of the FBI alert had little impact on today's U.S. crude oil prices, which fell sharply on reports that OPEC was having trouble carrying out a planned cut in production. Traders said such security alerts appeared to be relatively common.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in Washington and New York, U.S. oil refineries have adopted tougher security measures that include more scrutiny of visitors. The National Petrochemical and Refiners Association said it asked its Texas members to be more vigilant about security after the warning. Director for security with the trade group, said the FBI and other federal agencies were still analyzing the intelligence information they received about a possible attack. "We've talked with the FBI and there's not much more that is going to be said," he said.

The oil refiners trade group is asking members to "be more watchful and vigilant, as circumstances permit," The FBI spokesman said. "I'm very confident that they are doing virtually everything that should be done. Protecting themselves is in their own self-interest." The FBI was meeting with oil industry officials to discuss the threat, but it is the latest of a series of meetings about security, the FBI spokesman said. "The FBI in Houston meets regularly with the oil industry. It's not like there is a special briefing that has been called," he said. "The oil industry generally is something that Middle Eastern terrorists know about," he said. "We (U.S. refineries and pipelines) are something that is on their minds," he also said.

Reuters News Service contributed to this report.