Laughter turns to awe and panic in amateur footage released of an enormous gas plant explosion in Texas on Thursday.

The mobile phone footage shows workers chatting and laughing in Spanish before a huge blast creates a massive cloud of fire and smoke.

The workers then begin running away, with the video capturing the cameraman's heavy breathing.

The explosion could be felt 40km away in the isolated Texas panhandle desert, three hours from El Paso.

"People heard it 25 miles out. It was a big boom," Reeves County Sheriff Art Granado told the Carlsbad Current-Argus .

Remarkably, only two people suffered minor injuries, the Anadarko Petroleum Company said.