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Partial sanctions' lift not effective on Iran’s petrochemical industry

Business Materials 30 August 2014 14:58 (UTC +04:00)

Tehran, Iran, Aug. 30

By Milad Fashtami - Trend:

Lifting some of the international sanctions imposed on Iran has not been effective on the petrochemical industry so far, Iran's Deputy Oil Minister Abbas She'ri-Moqaddam said.

She'ri-Moqaddam said that the main point in exporting products to foreign countries is to receive the revenues, but since the banking system is still under sanctions the country has not been able to receive the money, Iran's ISNA News Agency reported on August 30.

"We still face problems in transferring the money, it's as if the petrochemical industry is still under sanctions," She'ri-Moqaddam explained.

She'ri-Moqaddam, also the managing director of National Petrochemical Company, said on August 20 that Iran's petrochemical industry has the annual capacity to produce 60 million tons of products.

He added that the country uses only 68 percent of the mentioned capacity.

He referred to feed shortage as the main problem of Iranian petrochemical units.

In April, Iranian officials announced that some European countries including Italy, Spain and Greece have resumed imports of petrochemical products from Iran.

Iran's oil and petrochemical exports have increased following some sanctions relief on the Islamic Republic, including the EU and US bans on the country's petrochemical exports.

The ban ease is part of an agreement inked in Geneva last November between Iran and the P5+1 (five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the US, France, Britain, Russia, and China - plus Germany), under which the six countries agreed to provide Iran with some sanctions relief in exchange for Iran agreeing to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities during a six-month period.

The Geneva deal took effect on January 20 and expired on July 20. However the two sides agreed to extend their talks for four months till Nov. 24 to reach a permanent deal on Iran's disputed nuclear program.

Above 40 million tonnes of petrochemical products were produced in Iran during the last fiscal year in the country, which bring $ 9 billion in income for Iran.

The country's fiscal year starts on March 21.

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