State-owned Saudi oil company Saudi Aramco has denied it was the victim of another cyber attack, as was reported earlier after several of its computers were shut down, Reuters reported.

Media reports earlier today claimed the petrochemical giant had fallen prey to a similar exploit that forced it to take 30,000 workstations offline in August 2012, later admitting that the Shamoon virus had tried to infiltrate its command and control systems with the aim of halting oil production.

Today's reports surfaced after Twitter posts claimed the company had taken some computers offline, which led to initial speculation of a malware incursion, but Aramco sought to quell the rumours, saying the machines had been shut down for upgrade purposes.

"Saudi Aramco confirms its electronic network is completely safe and speculations of an electronic breach are completely untrue and we point out that the shutdown that took place is a temporary shutdown of a limited number of personal computers at the company that was the result of an update of some electronic applications of the network," the company said in a statement.