Manama: A fire that engulfed a kerosene unit at the Mina Abdullah refinery on Tuesday evening has been put out, the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) has said.
The fire broke out at 11.30pm local time on Tuesday, and it took firefighters about 75 minutes to extinguish it, KPC chief Hashem Al Hashem said in a statement carried by Kuwait News Agency (Kuna).
“There are no human casualties and the situation is under control,” he said.
“Once the fire is fully quenched, a committee would be set up to investigate the incident.”
The cause of the fire has not been established yet, but Al Hashem believes that it could have been caused by a mechanical failure at one of the unit pumps.
He said that the fire did not affect the operations of the Mina Abdullah refinery units, stressing they were functioning normally.
“The kerosene stock is sufficient to meet domestic and export needs until the operation of the kerosene unit is resumed,” he said.
Mohammad Faleh Al Hajri, the head of the KPC workers’ union, confirmed in a statement to Kuwaiti Television that all employees were safe and that the fire had been put out.
Located about 60 kilometres south of the capita Kuwait City, the Mina Abdullah Refinery was Built in 1958 by the American Independent Oil Company “AMINOIL”. It was expanded over several years and today, it covers an area of 7,935,000 square metres.
