$70 billion of petrochemical investment

Iran’s 20-year vision plan targets producing $70 billion of petrochemicals a year at current prices.

Officials say petrochemical production will hit 70 million tonnes worth $27 billion at current prices in the new Persian year which begins on March 20.

The country seeks to more than double this capacity in the next decade, which requires between $7 billion to $10 billion of annual investment.

Companies from Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, South Korea, Japan and even the US have indicated readiness to participate in Iran’s petrochemical projects.

Germany’s industrial gases company Linde and Japan’s Mitsui Chemicals plan $4 billion of investment in Iranian petrochemical projects, new Managing Director of the National Petrochemical Company (NPC) Marzieh Shah-Daei said this month.

Linde and the world’s largest chemical producer BASF sent their executives with German Minister of Economy Sigmar Gabriel to Iran in July to discuss investment and transfer of technology.

Negotiations are underway with BASF to construct a petrochemical township in southern Iran with $4 billion of investment, Iranian media quoted Shah-Daei as saying last week.