October 07, 2008

Pipe line blast kills 28 in Saudi Arab

It is reported that 28 people were killed and 12 others are missing after a fire broke out on Haradh to Uthmaniyah gas pipeline 30 kilometers from Aramco’s Hawiyah gas plant in an oil rich desert area of Saudi Arabia. The fire broke out while workers were welding a plate on to the pipeline. As per report, most of the dead appeared to be Asian workers along with at least one Lebanese and 6 Indians.

Saudi Arabia’s national oil company Aramco said "The fire broke out while contractor workers where linking a new pipe" to the pipeline during maintenance late Saturday. 28 workers, including 5 Aramco employees, had died in the fire, which was put out on early Sunday.”

Aramco said the site was being operated by a contractor, and the incident did not affect production or distribution. However it added that a high level technical committee has been set up to probe the incident.

The Hawiyah plant is one of the major gas processing facilities in Saudi Arabia, built in the desert near the Al Ghawar oil field, the world’s largest, and south of the city of Dhahran, an oil hub. The plant, which produces 1.4 billion cubic feet of gas a day and cost USD 4 billion to build, was launched in October 2002 as the first to process only non associated gas. It produces enough natural gas to free up around 260,000 barrels per day of Arabian Light crude oil for export.