It seems that the time has come to take advantage of these capacities in order to obtain bilateral and mutual advantages by presenting them to friendly countries.
In this context, the Ministry of Petroleum has put the policy of holding shares in offshore refineries on the agenda. This policy was used last year in relation to Venezuela and Uzbekistan and is still ongoing.
The President of our country visited the Latin American region and recently followed the expansion of Tehran's cooperation with the countries of this region in the fields of refining and petrochemicals.
Stakes in refineries in South American countries are important to align with us in two ways.
First, the countries in this region are predominantly political and since they are under sanctions, they can be good partners for us.
On the other hand, these countries have enormous resources and there is a possibility of cooperation between Tehran and these countries.
Many believe that the fact that we have been able to record high exports of crude oil under sanctions is the result of the market creation that the 13th government created through policies such as equity ownership in offshore refineries.
It has been pointed out for many years that turning oil into a commodity can reduce the sanctionability of this precious substance, which is the main source of income for the country. But the fact is that the production of petroleum products requires refining facilities, and their creation is expensive and time-consuming.
In the current situation where we urgently need to increase oil revenue, building a refinery in the interior of the country cannot be an appropriate option.
   For this reason, some experts believe that cooperation in semi-functional offshore refineries of friendly countries can be useful.
This policy is currently pursued by the Ministry of Petroleum.
Regarding Iran's ownership policy in offshore refineries put in place by the 13th government, we have sought the opinion of Ramzan Ali Sangdovini, member of the Parliament's Energy Committee, which you will read below .
While pointing out that our energy diplomacy has changed in the 13th government, Sangdwini said in an interview: Thanks to the measures implemented by the current oil ministry, we have been able to improve the daily record of the country's crude oil exports.
He went on to say: Participation in offshore refineries is one of the important solutions to neutralize the sanctions and ensure the sale of the country's oil. We cannot process all the crude oil produced in the country domestically, so the right policy is to use offshore refinery capacity.
This member of the Parliament's Energy Committee continued: The technical and expert forces at our disposal have provided the basis for cooperation with offshore refineries.
In this way, we guarantee the sale of our oil to other countries and advance our objectives.
Sangdwini noted: In some countries, like Uruguay and Venezuela, there is empty refining capacity, and we can produce and sell processed products by filling in their capacity.
Participation in offshore refineries has provided us with a platform to supply knowledge-based business products to target countries.
Therefore, we have established a kind of market construction for knowledge bases. According to this member of the Parliamentary Energy Committee, today Latin American countries such as Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua have placed their trust in us, which has created the basis for expanded cooperation.
Sangdwini recalled: In the ownership policy in offshore refineries, we supply the crude oil to the target countries and receive the product in return. South American countries need this kind of products and we can sell the products made in the same region.
He added: "We have become self-sufficient in petroleum products, while we have many infrastructure problems."
   Despite these problems, we were able to take positive and positive steps in the field of product production and break the recession in terms of oil exports.
In the end, Sangdwini underlined: We have a successful experience in the field of offshore refineries in Venezuela.
Currently, our relations with other countries like Saudi Arabia have developed and we can use the capacity of these countries in accordance with our interests.
We need to strengthen our foreign oil diplomacy in various ways and take advantage of existing capabilities in the field of energy.
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