Javad Oji told reporters on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting that
this would help Iran process its oil, avoid crude sales and create more added
value.
According to IRNA, Mr Owji also said that energy diplomacy would be
one of the main pillars of the thirteenth government and that the oil and
foreign ministries had made a lot of efforts in this regard.
He said that Iran's imports, transit and swap of gas and its share of
gas trade in the region were increasing and that it had some favourable plans
under way.
Mr Oji said that some positive and constructive events had happened in
the fields of oil, gas, refining and petrochemicals in the past 20 months.
He pointed to the use of offshore refineries' capacity in foreign
countries as one of these cases.
He said that Iran was using these capacities to refine its oil in
different countries.
He added that petroleum products were immune to sanctions because of
the global demand for them, saying that using offshore refineries' capacity in various
countries had been one of the main axes in the oil ministry and that
fortunately some cases had been done and now Iranian oil was being refined in
these refineries.