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A helicopter operated by Saudi Aramco crashed Sunday in the energy heartland of Ras Tanura, killing all 14 passengers on board.
The crash took place at 6 a.m. local time, the Saudi Press Agency said, citing the energy ministry. It did not elaborate on the cause of the crash or the identities of the victims beyond the fact they were all Saudi nationals. Relevant authorities are investigating, it said.
Ras Tanura in Saudi Arabia's Persian Gulf coast is at the center of the kingdom's energy industry, hosting the country's biggest refinery and critical oil export infrastructure. Aramco had only just days earlier resumed loading crude at the terminals in the area for shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, after keeping the facilities shut since the Iran war started at the end of February.
It wasn't immediately clear if the incident on Sunday affected any energy facilities. Any disruption would deal a fresh blow to Saudi Arabia's efforts to return its operations to normal levels following an interim peace deal between the US and Iran.
The crash comes on a weekend that's seen increased tensions in the Middle East with the US and Iran targeting each other's military infrastructure and straining their peace efforts. Tit-for-tat assaults started on Thursday with an attack on a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, prompting Washington to hit Iran the following day. The US struck again overnight Saturday, after an attack on a vessel carrying Qatari oil. Iran targeted US assets in Kuwait and Bahrain on Sunday.
On Friday, two very large crude carriers were loading at offshore facilities in Ras Tanura port, the first tankers to use the terminal since early March, soon after the war broke out. The arrival of the giant tankers were the first sign that the Saudi oil industry was starting to return to normal.
The energy market is closely scrutinizing shipments to see whether the recovery in exports through Hormuz can last. Crude exports from the Gulf rose to at least three-quarters of their prewar levels in the week since the interim peace deal. That's helped erase all the wartime gains in oil prices, with benchmark Brent crude closing just shy of $72 a barrel on Friday.
The area around Ras Tanura had been targeted early in the war as well. In March, Aramco halted operations at its refinery as a precaution after a drone strike in the area. In early April it faced a series of attacks that cut overall crude oil production and forced it to halt the Satorp refinery along the eastern coast that's jointly operated by TotalEnergies SE.
