CAIRO - Two workers were killed and five left in critical condition after a fire at the Mina al-Ahmadi refinery in Kuwait, its operator reported on Friday.

Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) said via Twitter that two bodies had been recovered and that "five injured have been transferred ...to al-Babtain hospital in a critical condition," adding that three others were in a stable condition.

Earlier in the day, the company said that "the refinery operations and export operations were not affected and there has been no impact to local marketing operations and supplies to the electricity and water ministry."

In October, a fire broke out in the atmospheric residue desulphurisation unit at the refinery that left several workers injured.

Al-Ahmadi is the principal Kuwaiti port for exporting crude, oil and gas products.

(Reporting by Lilian Wagdy and Yasmin Hussein; editing by David Goodman and Jason Neely)