Iran seeks investments in petrochemical industry
By Sara Rajabova
Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi has downplayed the West's sanctions against Iran's petrochemical industry, saying there is no obstacle to investment in this field.
Speaking at the 10th Iran Petrochemical Forum (IPF) in Tehran on May 13, Qasemi said Iran's Oil Ministry will support foreign investors in their investment to the country, Press TV reported.
He invited all foreign and domestic investors to invest in Iran's petrochemical industry.
"We will guarantee the profitability of investment in the petrochemical industry for domestic and foreign investors," the minister said.
He added that Iran's petrochemical industry meets domestic needs and has an active presence in international markets.
Iran currently exports petrochemical products to 40 countries, Qasemi noted.
He said Iran would change the path of sanctions to meet basic needs of other countries and expressed hope that the country would have a more active presence in international markets.
At the beginning of 2012, the United States and the European Union imposed new sanctions on Iran's oil and financial sectors.
The sanctions, which prevent EU member states from purchasing Iranian oil or extending insurance coverage for tankers carrying Iranian crude, came into effect on July 1, 2012.
Iran rejects the allegation, arguing that as a committed signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
In meantime, Iranian deputy oil minister Abdolhossein Bayat said that the country will account for 41 percent of petrochemical production in the Middle East within seven years.
The official said that Iran plans to establish 33 new petrochemical complexes, part of which will be constructed along the shores of the Sea of Oman and Chabahar Free Zone.
Other projects will be implemented in the country's new development areas of Lavan in the Persian Gulf, Sarakhs in the northeastern part of country and southern Iranian port cities of Mahshahr and Assaluyeh, he added.
He further said that upon the implementation of underway projects, Iran's petrochemical production capacity will increase to 100 million tons per annum by the end of the country's Fifth Five-Year Economic Development Plan in 2015.
Bayat said Iran's petrochemical production output reached 51 million tons in the last two years.
On Sunday, Director for Planning and Development at the NPC Ramezan Oladi said Iran currently represents about a quarter of the Middle East's petrochemical products. He said that Iran is planning to increase it to 38 percent by 2015.
He said petrochemical products accounted for 37.5 percent of the country's non-oil exports and 47 percent of industrial exports in the year to March 2013.
Iran reaped $12 billion from exporting petrochemicals in the last Iranian calendar year which ended on March 20, 2013.
Nearly 60 countries, mainly from South and Southeast Asia, imported Iran's petrochemical products in the previous Iranian calendar year.
Iran is determined to become the biggest petrochemical producer in the Middle East.
Iran has significantly expanded the range and volume of its petrochemical production over the past few years, and the NPC has become the second largest producer and exporter of petrochemicals in the Middle East after Saudi Arabia.