riyadh
\nA helicopter crash in Saudi Arabia killed 14 Saudi citizens on Sunday, the official press agency reported, adding that the aircraft belonged to state oil giant Aramco.
\nThe Saudi Press Agency, citing an official at the energy ministry, reported the helicopter crashed in Ras Tanura in the country\u2019s east.
\n\u201cThe accident claimed the lives of all 14 passengers, all Saudi citizens,\u201d the agency said, adding that an investigation was under way to determine the cause of the crash.
\nAramco says it operates more than 60 aircraft, including helicopters serving more than 300 heliports in Saudi Arabia, making it one of the largest corporate fleets in the region.
\nThe deadly accident comes as oil-rich Gulf nations seek to ramp up their output following Iranian attacks and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for the export of oil and gas.
\nSaudi Arabia did not indicate the incident was in any way connected to a hostile attack.
\nDuring the Middle East war, Iranian attacks had targeted energy facilities in the Gulf.
\nRas Tanura is home to one of the largest refineries in the Middle East, with a capacity of 550,000 barrels per day, and is critical to Saudi Arabia\u2019s energy sector.
\nThe refinery has been targeted several times, notably during an Iranian drone attack at the beginning of the conflict, which caused a fire and forced a partial shutdown.
\nRiyadh said in April that the weeks-long attacks had disrupted several production operations at key facilities, with refineries in Ras Tanura as well as Jubail, Yanbu and Riyadh targeted.
\nSaudi Arabia, the world\u2019s leading crude exporter, produces a little over 10 million bpd.
\nPakistan extended its condolences to Saudi Arabia following the tragic helicopter crash in Ras Tanura that claimed the lives of 14 Saudi nationals.
\nIn a post on X, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said the government and people of Pakistan were \u201cdeeply grieved\u201d by the devastating incident.
\n\u201cOur thoughts and prayers are with the victims of this tragic accident and their grieving families,\u201d Dar wrote.
\nReaffirming Pakistan\u2019s support, DPM Dar said the country stood in \u201ccomplete and unwavering solidarity\u201d with its Saudi brethren during this hour of national grief.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
riyadh A helicopter crash in Saudi Arabia killed 14 Saudi citizens on Sunday, the official press agency reported, adding that the aircraft belonged to state oil giant Aramco. The Saudi Press Agency, citing an official at the energy ministry, reported the helicopter crashed in Ras Tanura in the country\u2019s east. \u201cThe accident claimed the lives …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":99526,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99516"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99542,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99516\/revisions\/99542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}