During the second day of his visit to the southern province of Hormozgan on Friday, President Raisi opened the first phase of the super heavy oil refinery.
The new plant can turn 35,000 barrels per day of super heavy crude oil into various products such as bitumen, naphtha, diesel and light oil.
Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji said during a visit to the refinery on Thursday that the facility would fed on super heavy oil from Soroush and Nowruz oilfields in the Persian Gulf.
Owji said private owners of the Qeshm Refinery had provided around $220 million in investment for construction of the refinery and for the supply of machinery and equipment to the facility, Press TV reported.
He said the refinery could reach a refining capacity of 100,000 barrels per day within the next three years.
Qeshm in one of the world’s largest islands that is located in the Persian Gulf just few kilometers off the southern Iranian coast.
The area is one of major special economic zones of Iran where regulations are more lax compared to the mainland to encourage more investment in trade and manufacturing activities in the region.