Baku, Dec. 12/ Trend M. Moezzi
Iran's oil minister Rostam Ghasemi has ordered two of his deputies to work on speeding up the stalled Golestan Petrochemical Complex in northern Iran, according to Pana news.
The complex is among Iran's biggest petrochemical projects. It will increase Iran's capacity to produce petrochemical products worth more than one million tons per day. Although work on the operational phase of the complex began four years ago, it has faced obstacles.
These included financing problems when banks wouldn't accept Golestan Petrochemical's guarantees and collaterals.
Mr. Ghasemi has ordered deputy ministers, Abdol Hossein Bayat and Javad Oji to work to resolve this issue and Iran's oil ministry will guarantee the Golestan project's financial obligations.
The project has to make the first loan repayments to its German partner, Siemens, but doesn't have the funds. To help avoid the possibility of Siemens cancelling its contract and collecting fines from the Golestan project, Iran's oil ministry will loan the project money to pay the first instalment.
Providing gas to the petrochemical complex is another major issue. Golestan does not have the money to make its first payment to the National Iranian Gas Corporation (NIGC) and this in turn delayed supplying the project with gas. Mr. Ghasemi has ordered the NIGC to supply the complex with gas after it receives a check from the project. When the petrochemical complex resolves its financial problems, it will pay the NIGC.
The Golestan Petrochemical Complex has recently signed contracts with the Ammonia Caslae Group, a Swiss company and Stamicarbon a Dutch company hoping to get a production licence for producing ammonia and urea.