Iran building first heavy oil refinery in Qeshm Island

An Iranian Oil Ministry official announced that the country is building its first refinery able to process heavy crude in the Southern Qeshm Island.The refinery, with capacity to produce as much as 30,000 barrels a day of light oil products, will be operational by early 2013, Mansour Bazmi, the head of the Research Institute of the Petroleum Industry, said in a report on the ministry's news website, Shana.Crude will come from Iran's Soroush and Norooz fields, Bazmi said, without giving details on its content. The density of Iranian crude from fields such as Soroush and Norooz is higher than other grades, making the oil more difficult to refine and the grades are only shipped to Asia and the Mediterranean. Iran would be able to sell refined products in Asian and European markets, Bazmi said.Iran, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' second-largest oil producer, started building the Qeshm refinery about six months ago, Shana said.Meantime, Iran and Pakistan have drawn up plans for an oil pipeline despite the United States' opposition and growing pressures on Islamabad. Proposals for the pipeline and the oil refinery were also discussed during the recent 18th session of the Iran-Pakistan Joint Economic Commission meeting held in Islamabad. Deputy Managing Director Aftab Ahmad said that Pakistan Refinery Limited was designed in 1962 to process Iranian oil, though consumption of Iranian oil in Pakistan is very low. "No refinery in Pakistan can process 100% Iranian crude oil," he said. Therefore the pipeline between Iran and Pakistan would only be feasible if Iran also sets up a refinery in the South.