'Iran's petchem sector to attract $14bn'

Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Abdolhossein Bayat says the country plans to attract about USD 14 billion in foreign investment for the implementation of its petrochemical projects, Press TV reported with reference to IRIB.

Bayat, who is also the managing director of the National Iranian Petrochemical Company (NIPC) made the announcement on Saturday.

Bayat also said that NIPC has attracted about USD 2.2 billion from the National Development Fund (NDF) to help the development of petrochemical projects.

The official said that Iran plans to invest USD 50 billion in the petrochemical sector during the Fifth Five-Year Development Plan (2010-2015) to create the production capacity of 51 million tons.

He added that this amount of investment would be made by the private sector and the government would provide the required infrastructures.

Bayat went on to say that petrochemical sector accounts for two percent, 44 percent and 55 percent of Iran's Gross National Products (GNP), non-oil exports and industrial exports respectively, bringing USD 12 billion in foreign currency revenues last year.

Earlier in September, Bayat announced that Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi had approved the allocation of USD 7.5 billion from NDF to petrochemical projects.

He said that the NDF had received a list of high priority petrochemical projects such as Golestan, Zanjan, Lordegan, Gachsaran, and Andimeshk.

Last year, the overall production of petrochemical products was about four million tons which indicates that 95 percent of Iran's petrochemical development plans have been implemented.

NIPC had earlier announced that Turkey plans to assist Iran with the construction of two petrochemical plants in southern and western Iran.


/Trend/