Iran Courts $4.5bln in Petrochem Sector

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran has negotiated around $4.5 billion in joint ventures in the petrochemical and energy sector during the past three years, an oil industry official said.

National Petrochemical Co. Managing Director Gholam Hossein Nejabat said that a range of companies from Oman and Singapore to Venezuela and the United Arab Emirates have approached Iran on a variety of joint ventures.

“Iranian participation contracts are based on 50-50 deals,” Nejabat said, adding that 50 percent of shares belonged to NPC and the rest were owned by a number of foreign companies.

Nejabat also referred to the annual production of 300,000 tons of heavy polyethylene in an Iranian-Philippine petrochemical unit in the Islamic Republic.

He pointed to a deal between the National Petrochemical Co., the Iran Petrochemical Commercial Co. and Oman as an example in the energy sector.

“The NPC, the IPCC and Oman Oil Co. have signed a contract to establish a joint company named Hormuz Co., and in the near future a tender will be held in order to introduce the appropriate contractor,” he said.

Iran has courted foreign investors to its oil and energy sector amid economic sanctions imposed by the West over its nuclear program.

Turkish officials said Monday they expected to reach a deal with Iran over natural gas sometime next month.

Nejabat added that some 47 petrochemical complexes will also be established across the country by the end of the fifth five-year economic development plan in 2015.

He also said that once the projects come on stream, the volume of domestically-produced petrochemical products will reach 43 million tons. The official anticipated that $32 billion would be invested in this respect.

“Once the projects become operational, the Islamic Republic of Iran will produce over 5.3 percent of the world’s total output,” he said, adding that Iran would produce 36 percent of the Middle East’s petrochemical production.

“The Oil Ministry has set targets for the annual production of 11.5 million tons of ethylene, 11.5 million tons of polymer and 3.4 million tons of urea,” he said.

Nejabat noted that Iran will make efforts to become the biggest producer of methanol in the world.