State-owned Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company on October 21 shut down parts of its 615,000 barrel-per-day Al-Zour refinery, industry monitor IIR said.

The refinery is a major distillate exporter after being brought online in 2022, and traders said diesel margins widened on Monday on the news.

The low-sulphur gasoil futures premium to Brent crude rose to its highest since February last year.

A fire occurred at the refinery's atmospheric residue desulfurization-1 unit, leading to the refinery also shutting down its other ARDS systems and one of its 205,000 bpd crude distillation units, the alert by IIR on Monday showed.

All units, including the ARDS unit 3 that was under planned maintenance from October 19, are tentatively expected to restart by November 7.

KIPIC did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.

(Reporting by Seher Dareen and Ahmad Ghaddar in London, Ahmed Hagagy in Kuwait; Editing by Jan Harvey)