TEHRAN – Director of international affairs at the Iranian Ministry of Petroleum noted that it does note seem that reduction in sweet crude supply in the short term will be so severe as to affect global supply to the extent that refineries would move to substitute very sour and heavy crude for light, sweet crude.

Hojjatollah Ghanimifard told Petroenergy Information Network that refineries will need to be overhauled to use heavy crude instead of light crude. He added that heavy, sour crude varieties will yield low quality products unless needed investment is made in refineries. “This does not mean that when sweet crude is in short supply, refineries should switch to heavy crude. Investments should be worth it compared to price of products,” he noted. The official added that supply of sweet crude varieties will diminish in the course of time and this will not happen in a short period of time, but it should match changes in industrial societies. He noted that using liquid hydrogen instead of diesel fuel for buses is a major step considered by advanced countries. “Current economic surveys show that if sweet crude production decreases in future, even consumption markets will be displaced; so that, western markets will reduce consumption of sour crude and replace it with liquid and gas hydrogen,” he said.
کد خبر 75104