A huge blast occurred Thursday in an oil gathering center of Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) in al-Rawidhatain in the north of Kuwait, near the Iraqi border, KUNA reported.
At least four people were killed and 19 injured in this incident. Security sources said a leak might have caused the blast.
Oil shipments from Kuwait, the world's eighth largest exporter, would be affected "minimally" because of large volumes available from storage tanks, state Kuwait Oil Co (KOC) said at a news conference. Kuwait’s Oil Minister Adel Al Subaih declared that a massive blaze was contained and extinguished, after burning for about 20 hours.
"This is an accident, a technical fault due to a leak. There are no suspicions of terrorism or sabotage," Subaih earlier told Reuters. He reiterated were no reports or evidence of sabotage.
He mentioned that 600,000 barrels of daily production were halted after the explosion, and that Kuwait would gradually bring on new oil production from other fields to replace the lost volumes over the next one to two weeks. (Albawaba.com)
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