Tehran, Iran, August 14
By Mehdi Sepahvand –- Trend:
Iran and Ukraine held a meeting in which they tested the grounds for cooperation in the field of petrochemical trade.
The meeting was headed by Deputy Oil Minister and Head of the Iranian National Petrochemical Company Marzieh Shahdaei and Ukrainian Ambassador in Iran Sergey Borisovich, Iran’s Oil Ministry reported, Aug. 14.
This was a follow-up meeting to the previous memorandum of understanding (MoU), for amplification of cooperation in the field of energy, signed between the countries.
During the meeting, Shahdaei said that Ukraine can benefit from cooperation with Iran, since the country’s three petrochemical plants are fed solely from Russia.
She also said that Ukraine could provide an alternative transit path for Iran’s petrochemical exports to Europe.
“Iran’s petrochemical products can be swapped with Europe, or Ukraine can provide the ground for direct export from Iran to Europe,” she noted.
This meeting comes shortly after Ukraine started oil purchases from Iran, from June, 2017.
Iran plans to attract $10 billion investment in petrochemical sphere within the current fiscal year. Country projected to double the petrochemical production capacity to 120 million tons per year by 2021.
Iran’s petrochemical output has reached the level of 50 million tons in May, 2017, from 40.6 million tons in May, 2016.
Petrochemical exports have also risen to over 17 million tons in the year to March, 2017, from 12.8 million tons, four years earlier.