A fire broke out Tuesday at a gathering center in Kuwait's Burgan oil field, the second largest field in the world, slightly hurting five workers, Oil Minister Adel al-Sebeih said Tuesday.
"The fire was a limited one and has been put out," about two hours after it started, Sebeih said, voicing regret over the "minor" incident.
Five people were hurt at the center which was shut for maintenance work, the oil minister told the official news agency KUNA from the site, after rushing out of a parliamentary session to visit the scene.
Hospital sources told AFP that the wounded at the field -- the world's largest after Sawar in Saudi Arabia -- were three Indians, one Pakistani and a Romanian, all suffering burns. At least two of them were released after receiving first aid.
Sebeih was sworn in as oil minister last week and on Wednesday he faces an early test with a parliament opposed to a government plan to bring in foreign oil majors to develop northern oilfields.
The fire broke out at gathering center 2 at Burgan oilfield, which lies around 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Kuwait City, a spokesman for Kuwait Oil Company said.
The Burgan field, the first to start production in Kuwait in the 1930s, has an output of more than 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd), around 75 percent of Kuwait's total daily production.
Explosions rocked two of Kuwait's three refineries in June 2000, killing eight people and wounding 55 others and causing extensive damage worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Kuwait's OPEC quota from February 1 is running at 2.021 million bpd -- KUWAIT CITY (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
