Kuwait's Al-Ahmadi Refinery Fire Is Extinguished

By Fiona MacDonald

Sept. 3 (Bloomberg) -- A fire on a crane performing maintenance at Kuwait's Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery has been put out, an official at Kuwait National Petroleum Co. said. Output wasn't disrupted at the 466,000 barrel-a-day site.

``The fire was put out a few minutes ago,'' Ahmed al- Muzaiel said today in a telephone interview from the refinery, south of Kuwait City. ``There are no casualties.''

The crane was carrying out maintenance on feeding pipelines between two storage tanks when it caught fire. ``The crane was trying to isolate valves in a pipeline when there was a leak of liquid products,'' he said.


None of the surrounding storage tanks were ablaze at any time but turned black as a result of the intense heat, al- Muzaiel said.

Around 50 firemen and 12 fire engines worked to extinguish the blaze, he said.

``The fire was not that big but there was a lot of heavy dark smoke. It started small but expanded because of the flammable liquids,'' according to al-Muzaiel.

Operations and output at Kuwait's largest refinery weren't affected, al-Muzaiel said. Kuwait is the fourth-largest oil producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

To contact the reporter on this story: Fiona MacDonald in Kuwait FmacDonald4@bloomberg.net