Assailants firing shots at a security patrol set oil pipeline in eastern Saudi Arabia alight in the late hours of Saturday, Reuters has reported.
An industry source told Reuters there was no impact on oil operations as authorities were at the scene quickly and had put out the fire.
The incident took place at 2:00 a.m. local time, when a patrol came under fire at the entrance of Awamiya in Qatif district. Saturday’s incident followed a similar one last month when a small fire broke out on a gas pipeline in the oil-rich Eastern Province.
Earlier this week, a prominent Shi’ite cleric Nimr al-Nimr calling for greater rights for the kingdom’s Shi’ites was sentenced to death. The ruling was seen as possibly raising tensions in Qatif, a centre of demonstrations against the government, despite the frequency of protests dying down over the past year. Hundreds of people in Qatif had staged a march in solidarity with Nimr, a local resident said shortly after the sentencing.Â
However, there have been no confirmed attempts by Shi’ite activists to target Saudi Arabia’s energy facilities. State oil firm Saudi Aramco is a major employer of Shi’ites in both Qatif and the sect’s other main population centre in Eastern Province, al-Ahsa.
