HALIFAX — The Canadian military is trying to plan for a range of security threats to offshore oil and gas platforms to avoid what one senior official describes as a potential Maritime version of 9/11.

Rear Admiral Dan McNeil says various government agencies are working together to come up with defence strategies.

McNeil says the federal government has made preparing for such threats its top priority, despite the fact there are no perceived threats facing the rigs now.

McNeil compares 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.

Only one of the six natural gas platforms off Nova Scotia is manned, and has a workforce of less than 100 people.

There are three manned oil platforms off Newfoundland.

Officials say an attack on any of the rigs could take many lives, cause severe ecological damage and cost millions in damages.