How come Iran never bothered to refine its own oil and now has to import gasoline from Venezuela?

It completely baffles me why a leading OPEC country who knows that by engaging in nuclear weapons research, will suffer from trade sanctions that will completely cut the country off from the rest of the world. Iran has been a target of trade sanctions for as long as I can remember. Yet, never bothered to build refineries prior to engaging or even while engaging in nuclear weapons research, even for its own consumption.





If Iran has the technical capacity and the ability to subvert trade sanctions to keep building nuclear capability (civilian or military) than it stand to reason that they have the ability to build refineries under such conditions.How come Iran never bothered to refine its own oil and now has to import gasoline from Venezuela?
We can build refineries, yes but we have MAD leaders, which their only concern is having power over the people of Iran(which needs money and time) .


Building refineries needs alot of money and is a time consuming process, nothing that can be done in 1 or 2 years, not to mention the increasing consumption rate over time.How come Iran never bothered to refine its own oil and now has to import gasoline from Venezuela?
Iran has refineries but they are not good and old (unsafe). But it is really a political issue more than technical . It also takes a long time to build a refinery and make sure it is safe for operation as this is volatile fuel you are processing and any spark means a huge explosion.
Outsourcing is cheaper.