TEHRAN - Head of National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) Jalil Salari said his company has made more than 1.7 million refinery parts and equipment items for Venezuelan refineries which are already being used in this country, Shana reported.

According to Salari, during the late President Ebrahim Raisi’s administration, NIORDC took significant steps for extraterritorial activities among which reviving Venezuela’s refineries can be mentioned.

“It was the first time that National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company started offshore operations, despite the fact that our refining companies were handed over to the private sector, but we managed to use the capacity of these companies and their expert workforce,” he said.

“We set up offices inside Iran, Venezuelan experts were invited here and visited the equipment supplying companies and manufacturers and saw and believed Iran's capabilities up close and tested the samples,” he explained.

According to Salari, some items were also reverse engineered, that is, representatives of Iranian knowledge-based companies went to Venezuela and closely examined those parts and determined the plan, and based on that, the construction was done, and the result was that about 1.7 items were produced and transferred to the country.

Iran finished the reviving of the first refinery in Venezuela in October 2022.

Iranian Oil Minister Javad Oji announced the launching of the extraterritorial refinery called El Palito in Venezuela with a processing capacity of 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) on October 17, 2022.

"This was a long-standing and 43-year-old dream that was realized through the efforts of my colleagues at the NIORDC," Oji said.

Speaking in an energy seminar on fuel supply and services, the minister said launching this refinery in Venezuela is just the beginning of a comprehensive plan based on which the Islamic Republic will build such refineries in other friendly countries as well.

Iran signed a 116-million-U.S. dollar contract with Venezuelan state oil firm PDVSA in May to repair and expand the refinery.

Iran has also been swapping Venezuelan heavy oil and other commodities for gasoline, condensate, refinery parts, and technical assistance while providing the country with lighter oil to be used as diluent.

As its oil output becomes heavier, Venezuela struggles to source medium and light grades for its refineries, contributing to limited production and intermittent scarcity of motor fuels. The South American country also increasingly needs lighter crudes or refined products to turn its extra heavy oil output into exportable grades.

In total, Venezuela has received this year over 24 million barrels of Iranian crude and provided 21 million barrels under the swap agreement that was expanded earlier this year.

Salari also said in the same seminar that efforts are underway to expand Iran's refinery operation in overseas projects.

NIORDC is pursuing many overseas projects in collaboration with major refining companies in order to realize the goals of the Oil Ministry regarding the expansion of activities in other countries, Salari said.

EF/MA