Baku, Azerbaijan, May 14
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Chinese companies will finance a number of petrochemical projects in Iran.
Chinese firms will invest €470 million in the construction of Lordegan Petrochemical Complex, southwest of Iran, Iran's Mehr news agency reported on May 14.
In addition, they have pledged to finance Bushehr, Hengam, and Gachsaran petrochemical projects, all located in southwest of the country.
Chinese investors have expedited the process of financing some Iranian petrochemical projects after Iran and the 5+1 group (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) signed an interim agreement over Tehran's nuclear program in Geneva on November 24, 2013.
Some $7-8 billion is forecast to be invested by the Chinese investors in petrochemical projects in Iran.
On February 17, the National Iranian Petrochemical Company's managing director Abbas Sheri Moqaddam said Iran needs $31 billion to inaugurate 60 semi-finished petrochemical projects.
To date, just $5 billion is estimated to be spent in the projects, the Mehr News Agency quoted Moqaddam as saying.
Once the projects come on stream, they will increase the country's annual petrochemical output by 55 million tons, he said, adding that $74 billion is needed to expand the national petrochemical industry in the next 8-10 years.
The value of Iran's annual petrochemical output may double to $40 billion, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said in September 2013.
For the time being, the value of domestic petrochemical products per year is about $20 billion, he said, hoping that the figure would increase to $40 billion.
Between 1996 and 2006, the first surge in the value of petrochemical output occurred, so that the annual production increased from $1 billion to $20 billion, IRNA quoted Zanganeh as saying.
In the second surge, the figure will reach $40 billion, he added.