Morteza Shahmirzaei, CEO of the National Petrochemical Company, stated
in an interview: "The National Petrochemical Company, in line with
identifying investment opportunities for the country's required projects and
introducing them, as well as facilitating or implementing these opportunities
in the future, has undertaken the study of the petrochemical value chain and
provided entry opportunities for investors."
He added, "The document for the development and completion of the
petrochemical value chain, which includes the what and why of the objectives
and directions of the National Petrochemical Company to increase value-added
and self-sufficiency in the downstream product supply chain, was unveiled by
the honorable Minister of Petroleum at the fourteenth International
Petrochemical Symposium in the current year."
The Deputy Minister of Petroleum stated: "The new version of this
document, along with additional elements including strategic macro approaches,
updated statistics on the petrochemical market, and more, is in the final
stages of design."
He continued, "By implementing value chain projects, we will
witness a reduction in the import of required petrochemical products,
self-sufficiency in supplying the domestic market, increased resilience of the
industry's value chain, growth in downstream petrochemical industries,
increased value-added, higher income for the private and public sectors,
reduced raw and semi-finished product sales, reduced currency outflow in the
country, significant job creation in domestic industries, diversification of
the petrochemical industry product basket, and diversification of export market
destinations."
Shahmirzaei stated that "the strategy of the National
Petrochemical Company for this matter is studying the value chain and
formulating priority plans, providing feedstock for product production,
facilitating technology acquisition, improving the business environment for
product production, and attracting investment," adding that "the most
important action for the development of petrochemical complexes producing
imported products within the scope of the duties and authorities of the
National Petrochemical Company is attracting investment."
He added: "To attract investment, the National Petrochemical
Company will continuously monitor the required products and propose value chain
plans to investors, including major petrochemical holdings, and will follow up
on their implementation."
The Deputy Minister of Petroleum emphasized: "The National
Petrochemical Company is considered a development organization according to
Article 5 of the Law on Removing Production Barriers dated May 10, 2015; a
development that is essentially a form of role-playing in the fourfold aspects
of policymaking, planning, regulation, and governance in the governance
domain."
He continued: "This development includes a range of support and
facilitation activities to prevent market failure, and the National
Petrochemical Company, under its fundamental objectives, has outlined two
guiding and managing development tasks in line with its development duties,
which include defining value chain plans in line with these objectives."
The CEO of the National Petrochemical Company stated: "Among the
20 investment packages formulated under the name of value chain plans, the
majority of the plans have been approved by various investors," adding:
"So far, 27 preliminary agreements have been issued by the Ministry of
Oil, confirmed by the National Petrochemical Company, for various
investors."
He added: "According to the schedule announced by the investors,
all projects with preliminary agreements will be operational during the Seventh
and Eighth Development Plans due to the need to launch upstream projects
providing feedstock and the intrinsic nature of long-term construction of
petrochemical projects."
Shahmirzaei announced the total investment cost for implementing
petrochemical value chain plans as equivalent to $4.2 billion and said:
"This level of investment will result in an annual income of $4.4 billion,
which will be provided by investors. However, it is necessary to introduce
these resources to the Development Fund and other financial institutions for
facilitation based on prioritization."
He continued: "Each investor, during the stages of obtaining
licenses from various authorities for the construction of petrochemical
complexes, separately uploads cultural and social attachments to the National
License System."
The Deputy Minister of Petroleum admitted: "The National
Petrochemical Company, in order to achieve the country's major goals and
missions, in line with realizing national interests and overcoming the
constraints in supplying the country's required currency resulting from
international sanctions, aims to ensure the continuous return and injection of
currency generated from petrochemical exports into the country's economic
cycle."
He added: "In recent years, the National Petrochemical Company
has received annual currency plans from companies, and after reviewing the
currency income and expenditures, their commitments are declared to the Central
Bank, and the petrochemical industry's currency performance is monitored in a
way that in previous years, the petrochemical industry has had a very good
record in returning export currency and has been one of the most important
sources of currency for the Central Bank."
He added: "In addition to registering hedging import orders,
which are done in the National License System with the approval of relevant
managements in the National Petrochemical Company, issues such as payment of
facilities and facility interest, expenses related to insurance,
transportation, price difference of export quotas with the registered price in
the Islamic Republic Customs, and technical services such as foreign
engineering services requiring currency are reviewed in the planning and
development management, and after preparing the relevant forms and obtaining
financial and technical approval, they are sent to the Currency Return Task
Force for final approval and after confirmation, they are communicated to the
relevant banks and stakeholders."