Mansour Bazmi, Iranian Oil Ministry head, has announced that Iran is building its first refinery capable of processing heavy crude oil on its Qeshm Island in the Persian Gulf. Upon completion, the refinery will have an output capacity of as much as 30,000 barrels of light oil products per day and will come online within the next two years. The refinery’s throughput will come from Iran’s Soroush and Norooz fields. The oil is more difficult to refine as the output of the two fields has a higher density than other grades; at the moment, the fields’ output is only shipped to Asia and the Mediterranean. With the construction of the Qeshm refinery, Iran will be able to sell refined oil products in both Asian and European markets.
