One worker has been killed and four others injured after a fire triggered an explosion at a gas complex in Marsa Brega, Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) said on Wednesday. The state energy body said gas and crude oil production were unaffected by the blast, although the plant has been shut down as a precaution while repairs are carried out. The explosion struck the gas complex operated by the Sirte Oil Company, a subsidiary of the state-owned NOC, on the central Mediterranean coast. Residents of Brega said they heard a large explosion and saw thick black smoke rising into the sky above the facility. ## What happened at Marsa Brega According to the NOC, a fire broke out at the complex and triggered the explosion. Firefighters contained the blaze, isolated the gas lines and brought the fire under control, the corporation said. As a precaution, the entire plant was shut down. NOC Chairman Massoud Soleman said preliminary information pointed to a leak in a gas line supplying one of the facility's boilers. He gave the account in a Facebook statement, and later told [Reuters](https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/one-worker-killed-four-injured-fire-triggers-explosion-libyan-gas-complex-2026-11-11/) that repairs were expected to take at least two weeks. The NOC said operations were continuing normally, with no disruption to gas supplies to the domestic market or to crude oil production. [Devdiscourse](https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/international/4005169-one-worker-killed-four-injured-as-fire-triggers-explosion-at-libyan-gas-complex) also reported the corporation's account of the incident on Wednesday. ## Repairs expected to take two weeks The two-week repair estimate underlines the scale of the damage inside the complex, even though production has not been interrupted. The plant shutdown is a precautionary step while engineers assess the affected boiler system and the gas lines around it. Marsa Brega is one of Libya's oldest energy hubs, handling gas processing and refining for domestic use. The complex sits in the country's eastern oil crescent, a region that has repeatedly been at the centre of disputes over control of Libya's energy revenues. No further details have been released about the condition of the four injured workers, and the NOC has not named the worker who was killed. An investigation into the exact cause of the leak is expected to follow once the site is made safe. ## A warning on maintenance budgets Soleman linked the incident to long-running problems with funding for upkeep at Libya's energy facilities. He warned that delays in allocating and disbursing budgets, and the postponement of essential maintenance and overhauls that follows, can lead to accidents of this kind. "Delays in the allocation and disbursement of budgets - and the subsequent postponement of essential maintenance and overhauls - inevitably lead to such outcomes, and could potentially result in even greater disasters in the future," he said. The warning will add to pressure on Libya's authorities over the state of the country's ageing oil and gas infrastructure, much of which has gone years without the full maintenance programmes engineers say it needs. ## Libya's fragile oil sector Libya's oil sector has been hit by repeated disruption since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi, with production affected by political disputes as well as technical problems. Rival administrations, blockades and fighting around energy sites have shut down output on several occasions over the past decade. The Marsa Brega explosion is the latest reminder of how vulnerable that infrastructure remains. For now, the NOC's message is that supplies are secure. The test will be whether the repairs are completed within the two weeks Soleman has indicated, and whether the investigation produces a clear account of how a gas leak at a boiler was able to turn deadly.