Baku, Azerbaijan, July 1
By Dalga Khatinoglu - Trend:
A Dutch petrochemical firm denied a report from the Iranian news agency that they had signed lucrative deals with the Islamic Republic, according to a senior company executive.
"No, LyondellBasell company has no active business in or with Iran," George F. Smalley, Associate Director in communications, media and marketing told Trend July 1.
Iran's official news agency, IRNA, quoted Ahmad Reza Ashtari, the managing director of Kermanshah Petrochemical Company on June 29 as saying, "Basell Polyolefine GmbH have even traveled to Iran and visited some petrochemical projects in Asaluyeh, southern Iran and will sell technology to Iran's Kermanshah Petrochemical Company".
"They have also held several talks with Iranian petrochemical officials and plan to transfer the technology. The project is said to be worth $300 million," he said.
Smalley told Trend on July 1 that published information is inaccurate. The Dutch company referred to in the article, Basell Polyolefine GmbH, had at one time been a private company and had business dealings in Iran, but that was several years ago. It is now a part of the LyondellBasell Industries group of companies and has no business activities in Iran."
IRNA has quoted Ashtari as saying, "a contract has been signed with the Basell Polyolefine company to acquire license and implement the project in engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) method."
Iran's annual petrochemical production is expected to hit 50 million metric tons for the current Iranian fiscal year (by March 2016).
The index as of the last year increased by 10 percent compared to the preceding year, increasing from 40.5 million metric tons to 44.5 million.
Ahmad Mahdavi Abhari, secretary of the Association of Petrochemical Industry Corporations, said in April that the country's petrochemical sector is capable of attracting $70 billion in domestic and foreign investment.
He added that Iran 's petrochemical companies are in a very good shape in terms of export and sale of petrochemical products.
A total of $14 billion of petrochemical products were exported by Iranian companies in the past Iranian fiscal year, ended on March 20, showing good potential of these companies to attract domestic and foreign investments, Abhari said.
Edited by CN