The government which made us get used to driving Chevrolet Caprices is now making us run back to ride Volkswagens and pick-up trucks

MP Abdullah al-Arada

Four workers were killed in the blast and oil production was severely disrupted.

Oil Minister Adel al-Subaih has already offered to resign but opposition MPs said that was not enough.

The blast at the Rawdatain plant, about 70 kilometres (40 miles) north of Kuwait City, was the third big accident in the country's oil industry in the past two years.

Vital commodity

It is still not known if Mr Al-Subaih's offer to resign has been accepted.

Oil Minister Adel al-Subaih has offered to resign

But MPs argued that a wholesale change in government was needed.

The government must "show solidarity with the (oil) minister and resign with him," Islamist MP Abdullah al-Arada told parliament in a debate on the blast. "If we lose the oil, the entire country is lost," he said.

But Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah told reporters the government would remain.

The accident, which injured 19 people, many seriously, cut the daily crude output by a third.

The state-owned Kuwait Oil Company said it would compensate for lost production by increasing output at other fields.

Mr Al-Subaih told parliament it could take up to a month to restore partial oil supplies from the north.

The explosion and fire at the plant was caused by an oil leak, officials said.

Several MPs said the frequency of such accidents - eight people died in two separate refinery accidents in 2000 - revealed corruption and mismanagement in state-run companies and government departments.

"The issue is that the entire country is out of control, a ship without a rudder," said MP Ahmad al-Rubae.