Kuwait’s 615,000 b/d Al Zour refinery has begun to receive volumes of heavy oil according to the local Al-Qabas newspaper. Al Zour is operated by state firm Kipic, and spokesperson Abdullah Fahad al-Ajmi told Al-Qabas that the refinery is now receiving around 120,000 b/d of Lower Fars crude oil from the South Ratqa field in the north and Eocene crude from the Wafra field in the Partitioned Neutral Zone shared with Saudi Arabia. The Al Zour refinery was originally designed to process Lower Fars crude, but development of the heavy oil reserves has lagged plans and is insufficient to fully supply the plant.