Tehran, Iran, June 24
Trend:
Iranian officials are calling for construction of more refineries in the country and increase of oil products manufacturing, instead of crude oil sales.
"The oil products will be more distinct by injecting oil into refineries. Aside from that the diversity of products will increase, and they're harder to track than crude oil," said former official at the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) Jalil Salari, Trend reports citing Mehr News Agency.
The former official emphasized the necessity to develop refining industries and exports of oil products to bypass sanctions.
"The country has imported more than $12 billion worth of gasoline from 2013 untill now, there would have been more progress in the country if this capital was invested in infrastructure," he noted.
"There is a lot of potential here. We had research done for 7 refineries in Iran, including the Persian Gulf Refinery. All the financial resources were provided domestically, and we had a 10-percent progress a year, since 2013," he said.
Meanwhile, Hedayat Allah Khademi, the member of parliament's energy committee said that the government support would help develop the country's refining industry, while the officials can attract private companies' investments in these industries.