Large quantities of crude oil were spilled from a pipeline owned by the state oil company Aramco, the third accident in the country's energy industry in about one month, Saudi newspapers reported Sunday.
Al-Riyadh daily said the spill on Saturday covered about three kilometers (two miles) of an uninhabited open area in the al-Dawadmi district near the capital, Riyadh.
The newspaper, which is close to Saudi Arabia's royal family, said the operation room in Aramco was alerted of low pressure in the flow of oil in the pipeline, and the company adopted appropriate measures to stop the spill.
The daily said large oil trucks were seen shifting the spilled oil, and security authorities prevented the media from approaching the site. It did not say what caused the pipeline to be damaged.
