“Twenty-eight people, including five employees of Aramco, died,” state oil conglomerate Aramco said in a statement without giving further details or nationalities of the dead.

Indian officials in Riyadh said over phone that six Indians were killed in the blaze that broke out on the Haradh-Uthmaniyah gas pipeline, 30 kilometres from a major gas processing plant at Hawiyah.

Identity not known
They said the identity of deceased Indians could not be ascertained immediately.

Saudi Arabia’s Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi told reporters in Riyadh that 12 people were also missing and an unspecified number injured in the fire. The fire did not disrupt gas supplies.

The fire broke out when over 50 employees of Aramco were carrying out maintenance work.

“The fire broke out while contracted workers were linking a new pipe during maintenance,” Aramco, which has many Indian employees, said.

The fire was later brought under control.

“Necessary operational adjustments have been made to the gas system to normalise operations to ensure continuity of fuel supply,” it added. The company has also set up a high-level technical committee to investigate the incident.