Kuwait sets up team to probe fire at kerosene refinery

State-oil firm Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) has set up a team to probe the fire that shut down a kerosene unit at the Mina Abdullah refinery on Tuesday, the official Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reported.

The fire, which was extinguished by early Wednesday, will not affect the supply of kerosene in the domestic and export market, the Kuwait National Petroleum Corporation (KNPC) said.

KNPC CEO Waled Al Bader said on Twitter that there were no casualties among the workers and that the “rest of the refinery units were not affected by the fire and continue to operate at full capacity”.

“We affirm that the refinery’s supply of kerosene has not been affected by this fire as all the needs of the local market are covered by the other production units in Mina Abdullah and Mina al-Ahmadi, and export operations are also carried out according to their usual schedule,” he said.

نؤكد أن امدادات المصفاة من مادة الكيروسين لم تتأثر مطلقاً نتيجة هذا الحريق حيث تجرى تغطية كافة احتياجات السوق المحلي من هذه المادة من خلال وحدات الإنتاج الأخرى في مصفاتي ميناء عبدالله وميناء الأحمدي كما أن عمليات التصدير تجرى هي الأخرى بحسب جدولها المعتاد.

— Waleed Al-Bader | وليد خالد البدر (@CEO_KNPC) April 3, 2019

The refinery’s kerosene unit has a daily production capacity of 40,000 barrels and its main task is to extract impurities such as sulphur and nitrogen in order to ensure it meets the relevant requirements, KUNA reported.

KPC CEO Hashem Al Hashem told the agency that the fire was likely caused by a technical problem.

KNPC said it is in the process of investigating the incident to ensure it doesn’t repeat in the future.