NNA - A fire at a gas liquefaction unit in Kuwait's largest refinery Friday left 10 people injured before it was put out, the plant's operator said.

The blaze "erupted during maintenance work" on the unit at Mina al-Ahmadi refinery, 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of Kuwait City, state-owned Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) announced on Twitter.

It said 10 people were injured, five of them hospitalised with severe burns. Firefighters were mobilised and had extinguished the blaze.

KNPC said Kuwait's refining operations and exports were unaffected, as the unit affected had already been out of service.

Mina al-Ahmadi, where another fire last October caused a number of light injuries, is the largest of Kuwait's three refineries and handles some 466,000 barrels of oil per day.

A fourth is under construction with a daily capacity of 615,000 barrels.

A key member within the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Kuwait is currently producing about 2.4 million barrels a day. --AFP

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