Blast Kills Four at Kuwait's Largest Refinery

Four workers were killed and two employees injured in a gas pipe explosion on Saturday at Kuwait's largest refinery of Mina al-Ahmadi, Kuwait national refiner said.

The explosion took place at the Gas Liquefaction Plant at the refinery during maintenance works, Kuwait National Petroleum Co (KNPC) said in a statement cited by the official KUNA news agency.

The four people killed work for a private contractor, KNPC said. Two company workers were also injured but discharged from hospital after treatment.

An industry source earlier told Agence France Presse the dead workers were Asians and that the explosion was caused by a gas leak, adding that the blast also wounded three firemen.

The source said the refinery continued operations as usual and that the blast would have no impact on Kuwait's oil output and exports.

Mina al-Ahmadi is the largest of three refineries in OPEC member Kuwait, with a refining capacity of over 460,000 barrels per day. The other two at Shuaiba and Mina Abdullah have a combined capacity of around 450,000 bpd.