Foreign firms agree to finance petrochemical projects in Iran

Nicosia, Aug 20 (ANI): The Head of the National Petrochemical Company of Iran Adel Nejad-Selim has said that a number of firms from Russia, Turkey, India, Oman and South Africa have reached preliminary agreements with Iran for the financing of petrochemical projects in the country.

He did not reveal the names of the foreign firms involved.

Nejad-Selim was quoted by the Mehr News Agency as saying that about 3.3 billion dollars is required for the establishment of urea, polyethylene, olefin and methanol production units and complete the semi-finished projects by the end of the current Iranian year (March 19, 2010).

The Managing Director of the National Petrochemical Company said he expected that four petrochemical projects for which more than one billion dollars was spent would start production next month in the Pars Special Energy Economic Zone.

One of these projects is the Zagros Petrochemical Complex second unit, which will produce 1.65 million tons of methanol.

It should be mentioned that Oman has signed a memorandum of understanding with Iran to build a new plant in South Pars that will produce annually one million tons of ammonia and 650,000 tons of urea.

The cost of the project, which is about 800 million dollars and will be shared equally by Oman and Iran. (ANI)