At a meeting convened to review operational
challenges at Arvand Petrochemical Co., members of Parliament’s oversight
faction for the oil, gas and petrochemical industries joined the deputy
petroleum minister, the head of the National Petrochemical Company (NPC), a
senior official from the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade (MIMT), and the
secretary of the Petrochemical Employers’ Guild Association. The session
focused on production bottlenecks, regulatory hurdles and industry grievances
raised by companies operating in the Arvand region.
Mohammadreza Karimi, managing director of Arvand
Petrochemical, outlined what he described as the most pressing issues affecting
the complex, including price-setting rules, export barriers, energy costs and
the scope of corporate social responsibility (CSR) obligations.
Karimi said sharp increases in the price of
natural gas used for in-house power generation had emerged as one of the
company’s most serious cost burdens. “The higher gas tariff has pushed up
electricity production costs across the complex and directly affects our final
product prices and export competitiveness,” he said.
He added that existing export duties on
petrochemical products had eroded margins significantly. “In some cases the
duties render exports economically unviable,” Karimi said, calling for an
immediate review and overhaul of the tariff structure to preserve the role of
exports in sustaining upstream and downstream operations.
Karimi also criticised domestic price-setting
based on the NIMA exchange rate, arguing that the mechanism does not reflect
market realities and places disproportionate pressure on producers. He proposed
shifting the pricing benchmark to the “Second Hall” exchange rate to align
domestic prices more closely with actual market conditions.
Addressing CSR initiatives, Karimi said the
company had undertaken extensive community projects, but noted that several
related obligations still required structural backing and high-level policy
support.
He also urged the adoption of a national coding
system for domestically produced PVC. As Arvand is the country’s main producer
of various PVC grades, Karimi said a product-coding framework would help curb
excessive imports and strengthen protection for domestic suppliers.
NPC chief Hassan Abbaszadeh said the organisation
would pursue the proposed reforms through the relevant administration bodies.
Zeinab Gheysari, head of Parliament’s oversight faction for the oil, gas and
petrochemical industries, said follow-up technical sessions would continue and
that early results would be visible “in the near future.”