South Korea-based Samsung E&A is executing a project to repair units at Kuwait’s Mina Abdulla (MAB) refinery that were damaged by Iranian attacks on the facility, according to industry sources.

The facility has been hit several times by Iranian attacks since the US and Israel attacked Iran on 28 February, starting a regional war.

Samsung E&A is treating the repair work as confidential, and only those who are directly working on the project are being told about the nature of the damage and which units are being repaired, sources said.

Samsung E&A has an existing relationship with state-owned Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC), which operates the facility.

The South Korean company declined to comment on the MAB repair project when contacted by MEED.

Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), which is the parent company of KNPC, did not respond to a request to comment from MEED.

Samsung E&A originally executed a key part of KNPC’s $16bn Clean Fuels Project (CFP), which came online in 2021.

The CFP project integrated the MAB refinery with the Mina Al-Ahmadi (MAA) refinery, as well as upgrading several existing units and developing several new units.

Samsung E&A won the contract for package one of the CFP in consortium with UK-based Petrofac and the US company Chicago Bridge & Iron.

This package was worth $3.7bn and the scope of work included:

• Construction of crude distillation unit with a capacity of 264,000 barrels per stream day (BPSD)
• Construction of atmospheric residue desulphurisation (ARDS) units with a capacity of 50,000 BPSD and 100,000 BPSD
• Construction of heavy oil cooling (HOC) system with a capacity of 121,300 BPSD
• Construction of hydrocracker unit (HCR) with a capacity of 50,000 BPSD and 70,000 BPSD
• Construction of kero hydrotreating unit (KHT) with a capacity of 39,000 BPSD
• Construction of two diesel hydrotreating (DHT) units with a capacity of 73,000 BPSD
• Construction of naphtha hydrotreating (NHT) units with a capacity of 23,500 BPSD
• Construction of continuous catalytic reformer (CCR) with a capacity of 18,000 BPSD
• Construction of new sour water treatment (SWT) unit
• Construction of the buildings
• Construction of MOB #1, 2, 4 and 5
• Construction of site preparation/roads/paving/fencing/temporary facilities
• Laying of underground piping
• Construction of vacuum rerun (VR) unit with a capacity of 50,000 BPSD
• Installation of DHT flare
• Installation of HCR flare
• Construction of Shuaiba (SHU) refinery utility area
• Laying of Shuaiba (SHU) Refinery existing tankage and interconnecting piping
• Laying of inter-refinery transfer pipelines

Facilities in Kuwait have been hit by Iranian missiles and drone attacks multiple times since the regional conflict began.

State-controlled media has not published details on which sites Iran has hit.

Even so, it is clear that some of the most frequently hit facilities include the MAA and MAB refineries.

On the morning of 20 March 2026, following a drone attack, fires broke out across multiple units at the Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery.

In April, the same refinery came under attack three times within a two-week period. These attacks also started fires in a number of operational units, forcing them to shut down.

In early April, Iranian attacks also hit KPC offices, as well as facilities operated by its subsidiary, Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC).

In a statement released on 5 April, KPC said: “On 5 April, 2026, the oil sector complex located in Shuwaikh, which houses the KPC building and the Ministry of Oil, was attacked by drones, resulting in a fire at the building and significant material damage.

“Several operational facilities belonging to the corporation, both at KNPC [sites] and PIC [sites], were also subjected to similar drone attacks, leading to fires at a number of these facilities, and causing significant material damage.”

Attacks continued in July as the peace deal between the US and Iran frayed.

On 18 July, KPC said that “one of its vital oil facilities” was hit in repeated Iranian attacks, causing “significant material damage and some injuries”.

“The injured were provided with medical assistance and the site was evacuated, while the response to the attack is being handled in coordination with the relevant state authorities,” the corporation said in a statement.

A couple of days earlier, an attack on an offshore oil platform in Kuwait caused “material damage” and injured one worker, according to a statement released by the official spokesperson for Kuwait’s Ministry of Defence, Major General Saud Abdulaziz Al-Otaibi.

The offshore platform was associated with the state-owned upstream operator Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), and the worker required medical care.