NPC Seeking Investors for 25 Projects
EghtesadOnline: Iran is seeking investment to build 25 petrochemical projects, an official at the state-run National Petrochemical Company was quoted on Saturday as saying.
The NPC is proposing joint or individual investor participation for the projects, Farnaz Alavi, NPC's director for planning and development said, the Oil Ministry's news website Shana reported.
Providing feedstock for five more projects were also being studied Alavi said without giving details.
In July, Alavi told Shana that $32 billion in foreign investment was needed to build 28 petrochemical projects. The projects include factories to produce ammonia and urea, as well as gas-to-olefins (GTO) and gas-to-propylene (GTP) plants.
In July 2015, Iran agreed to limit its nuclear program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions, according to Financial Tribune.
Officials say the fast emerging petrochemical industry needs $72 billion in foreign investment for 80 projects. Annual petrochemical production capacity is around 65 million tons a year, but plans call for boosting the capacity to 130 million tons per annum by 2020 before reaching 180 million tons by 2025.
Iran also said last week that 29 companies from more than a dozen countries could bid for upstream oil and gas projects using the new and less restrictive Iran Petroleum Contract (IPC) model.