According to state refinery operator Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC), the fire at Mina al-Ahmadi was contained relatively quickly and operations at the 460,000-barrel-a-day facility were unaffected.

The fire is understood to have started after a crane dislodged a small oil pipe which in turn sprang a leak and caught fire.

The incident was the second fire in a Kuwaiti refinery in a month. In early August a fire at the smaller Shuaiba refinery killed a worker, although operations were unaffected.