A gas pipeline exploded today in Saudi Arabia killing 28 workers.
“The fire broke out while contractor workers were linking a new pipe [to the pipeline during maintenance late Saturday,]" Aramco said in a statement.
The blaze was extinguished early Sunday and occurred on the Haradh-Uthmaniyah pipeline about 18 miles from the Hawiya Gas Plant, Saudi Aramco, the state oil conglomerate.
According to the Wall Street Journal’s web site, “Aramco is building a natural gas liquids, or NGL, plant at Hawiyah, about 170 miles east of Riyadh, which will have the capacity to treat 3.8 billion cubic feet a day of natural gas to produce dry gas, NGL and ethane, all of which will be used to feed nearby industries, notably petrochemicals.”
The Aramco statement also said emergency response teams were immediately mobilized to deal with the explosion and that the lines that were involved have been isolated. Yet it seems gas supply was not interrupted by the incident.
The Reuters web site elaborated on the cause of the incident. “The state oil company said in a statement the fire was caused by a gas leak in the pipeline around 30 km (18 miles) from the natural gas liquids plant.” The site also gave more information on those who perished in the conflagration. “Western diplomats said most of the dead appeared to be Asian workers along with at least one Lebanese national. They said no Western victims had been identified.”
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