KUWAIT CITY, Feb 17, (Agencies): Firefighters in Kuwait are battling a fire that broke out following an oil spill at a well in the north of the country, the Kuwait Oil Co said Wednesday.

The state-run company announced the spill in a statement carried by the official Kuwait News Agency early in the day. It said that firefighters were “exerting ongoing efforts” to put out a fire at the site.

Company spokesman Saad al-Azmi was quoted by the news agency saying workers were trying to control the spill, which happened late Tuesday. He did not specify where the spill took place or anything about its size.

Al-Azmi also said that the thick gas seen being emitted at the site “is caused by putting out the blaze.”

He did not elaborate, but the news agency said that the Environmental Public Authority has confirmed that the gas contains no hazardous elements.

Tiny OPEC member Kuwait is a major oil producer. The US Energy Information Administration says Kuwait produces some 2.6 million barrels of crude oil a day and holds the world’s sixth-largest oil reserves.

Meanwhile, Kuwait signed a deal to export 100,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) with a major refiner, with a potential annual return of $2 billion, state news agency KUNA reported on Wednesday.

“The contract is one of the important strategic agreements that reinforces Kuwait’s position as a main oil supplier in the Asian markets,” Nabil Bouresli, managing director of international marketing at Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) was quoted by KUNA as saying. Kuwait plans to raise its crude oil production by 150,000 bpd in the third quarter and aims to sign new export deals with European customers soon, Bouresli has said earlier this month.