Tehran, Iran, Jul. 7
By Milad Fashtami - Trend:
Iran decreased the feed gas prices for its petrochemical complexes by 24 percent.
The country now provides each cubic meters of gas at the price of 2,020 rials (some 6 cents based on the exchange rate of USD at the free market and 8 cents based on the exchange rate at the forex center) to the complexes, Iran's SHANA News Agency reported on July 7.
Based on the current year's budget bill, the government was supposed to decreased the feed price of petrochemical complexes in order to support domestic producers.
Iranian parliament (Majlis) has approved that the price of gas feed of petrochemical complexes should not be less that 13 cents.
Iran averagely feeds 35 to 40 million cubic meters of natural gas per day to its petrochemical units. The figure accounts for some 6 per cent of the country's total gas production. Iran's gross natural gas output stands above 610 million cubic meters per day.
Experts believe that in order to compete with the Persian Gulf states in the petrochemical industry, the Iranian government needs to provide the domestic petrochemical complexes with natural gas at the same price of the neighboring countries.
Petrochemical complexes in the Persian Gulf Arab states buy natural gas at the prices of 3 to 6 cents per a cubic meter.
The value of Iran's currency, the rial, declined sharply in the past two years. The rial lost about 40 percent of its foreign exchange value in the previous year.