On Iran’s new plans to construct refineries in foreign countries, Managing Director of National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) Abbas Kazemi said “currently, buying stocks of crude oil refineries abroad is one of the policies pursued by the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) to ensure guaranteed sale of Iranian crude in the long run."
The official deemed the policy as a sound one asserting “before the Islamic Revolution, Iran held shares at four major foreign refineries while many countries implement the same policy nowadays.”
Kazemi further commented that in negotiations with countries like Brazil and Spain, we have proposed to construct crude oil refineries within the framework of equal shares and partnership; “NIORDC mainly undertakes the technical feasibility and economic justifiability of the project while NIOC remains as the key decision maker.”
NIORDC managing director also stressed that South Africa has voiced willingness to improve the quality of its oil refineries by Iranian experts; “Iran’s current approach is to invest in the construction of the refineries with the prerequisite that most required equipment will be supplied by Iranian manufacturers,” he maintained.
Deputy oil minister reiterated that “recently, some talks have been conducted with Indonesian and Malaysian companies to activate their refinery projects in which Iran holds shares.”
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