Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec.19
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Iran has repaid $4.5 billion of finance for petrochemical projects to foreign banks.
Issa Mashyekhi, Managing Director of Petrochemical Commercial Company International (PCCI) said some $1.5 billion has remained, which is being repaid regularly, Iran's Shana news agency reported on Dec. 19.
PCCI is a wholly owned subsidiary of the National petrochemical company (NPC).
No foreign finance has been arranged since 2008 in the country's petrochemical industry, he noted.
The sanctions on Iran's petrochemical sector are apparently lifted, but the embargo is practically still in place, Deputy Oil Minister Abbas She'ri-Mohaqaddam said on Nov. 7.
He went on to note that the country needs $33 billion of investment to complete some petrochemical projects with the total capacity to produce 55 million metric tons of products.
"Once the projects come on stream, the country will be able to earn some $26 billion through exports," he said.
Iran's total petrochemical production is expected to reach 44 million metric tons by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2015).
The US and EU imposed sanctions on Iran's oil exports and the country's banking system, as a result of which Iran faced problems in these sectors.
Iran and P5+1 (China, France, Russia, Britain, the US plus Germany) sealed an interim deal in Geneva on Nov. 24, 2013 to make way for the full resolution of the West's decade-old dispute with Iran over the country's nuclear energy program.
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.
Edited by CN