The present capacity of Iran’s petrochemical products now exceeds 60 million tons, estimated to be $ 20b annually.
Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, Iran’s oil minister had said that the ministry was planning the second development leap in petrochemical industries before assuming office. “With the second leap in development, our capacity to produce petrochemicals would exceed 100 million tons annually, worth of $ 40b,” Zanganeh was quoted to have said.
In current situation, a major prerequisite of developing Iran’s petrochemical industry is to lure private investments and foreign capital. With this in mind, the previous government had signed agreements to attract and inject resources from Chinese banks to new petrochemical projects. Mohammad Hassan Peyvandi, the CEO of the National Petrochemical Company (NPC) told the reporters that they evaluated the private sector as unfit to underwrite the € 500m projects. “Banks would not easily provide resources to private sector as well,” he added.
He also emphasized that if the government participated as 20 per cent in the projects to push the projects to productivity; it would solve the financing problem of the banks, and would also encourage the private sector to operate with higher risk. “Government’s entry 2 years after the project completion would contribute the repayment of resources and would ensure investors that the government would provide the raw material for industry,” added he.
After 3 years the Chinese banks have not yet allocated any resources to Iran’s new petrochemical projects.
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MNA
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