Financial Tribune - Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh says his ministry is ready to issue licenses for constructing small oil refineries in the border regions.

"Building refining centers with a maximum 100,000 barrels per day capacity near the borders can help the country expand economic ties to neighbors and also circumvent the unilateral US sanctions," Zanganeh was quoted as saying by ISNA.

Iran's oil industry is largely state-owned and usually tangled with political issues and that is why sanctions can easily undermine this key sector, the minister said.

Washington withdrew from the international Iran nuclear deal in May 2018, after President Donald Trump abandoned the historic agreement and imposed tough new economic sanctions.