Kuwait says overnight fire at onshore oil rig now contained

KUWAIT CITY – Kuwait’s state-run oil company says it has contained a fire at an onshore oil rig in the country’s southwestern oilfields.

The Kuwait Oil Co. said early on Monday that a fire broke out while an emergency team responded to what it described as a “minor” leak at the al-Maqwa field.

The company said the fire caused no injuries and production continued at the field. It did not offer an estimate for the number of barrels of oil spilled in the leak.

The company acknowledged another spill at the field earlier this month, without elaborating.

OPEC member Kuwait, a tiny emirate on the Persian Gulf, is a major oil producer. Kuwait produces some 2.9 million barrels of crude oil a day and holds the world’s sixth-largest oil reserves.