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