Azernews.Az

Iran has hinted at a proposal to international bodies for the creation of a global forum for exporters of petrochemical products, Iran's deputy oil minister said on Wednesday.

"The formation of the Petrochemical Exporting Countries Forum (PECF) will bring a new order to the market of petrochemical products and create coordination among exporters," Mehr news agency quoted Abdolhossein Bayat as saying.

Bayat, who is also the managing director of the National Iranian Petrochemical Company (NIPC), added that Iran, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Russia, Qatar, and Turkey are potential members of PECF which will focus on financial and technological cooperation among members, as well as product pricing and policy making on production issues.

In recent years NIPC succeeded in producing a wide range of petrochemicals and increasing the quality of production. Today, the company is the second largest producer and exporter of petrochemicals in the Middle East.

Iranian Industry, Mine and Commerce Minister Mehdi Ghazanfari also offered a plan to establish a joint petrochemical market among eight developing countries (D8) in October.

Addressing the second summit of industry ministers of the D8 in Turkey, Ghazanfari called on his counterparts to participate in relevant research, IRNA news agency reported on October 7.

He added that the group should assign representatives to follow up the work in this regard.

Iran is the second biggest petrochemical producer in the Middle East after Saudi Arabia.