Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 27/Trend A. Qurbanova/
Iran began construction of its first super heavy oil refinery in the Qeshm Island, with a refining capacity of 30,000 barrels of crude oil per day, Naftnews reported, quoting the Head of the Research Institute of the Petroleum Industry Mansour Bazmi as saying.
"The first super heavy oil refinery will be launched in one and half years. It will increase oil production revenues," he said.
At present, the design of a super heavy oil refinery unit in Qeshm was completed and the National Iranian Oil Company will sign a contract with a private company to begin construction.
It is expected that crude oil from the Souroush and Norouz oil fields will feed the super heavy oil refinery, while products will head toward the Asian and European markets, he added.
Iran 's residual oil reserves are estimated to reach 560 billion barrels of oil, while 140 billion barrels can be extracted which 70 billion barrels of which will be heavy and super heavy oil.
Iran has OPEC's second-highest oil output; it ranks second in the world in terms of natural gas reserves, after Russia.