Speaking at the launch ceremony of foreign-currency murabaha bonds for
Bandar Imam Petrochemical and the pre-sale of export currency from Bidboland Persian
Gulf, NPC Managing Director Hassan Abbaszadeh said petrochemical projects under
the current plan require about $26 billion in foreign currency financing.
“So far, around $13 billion has been secured, but another $13 billion
is still needed,” Abbaszadeh said. He added that projects planned beyond the
seventh development plan amount to about $44 billion, with some still at the
licensing and preliminary approval stage.
Abbaszadeh said Iran’s petrochemical industry generates about $15
billion in annual exports, part of which is used to import equipment, spare
parts and catalysts, while the remainder is sold to the central bank and
converted into rials or feedstock.
He highlighted recent cooperation between the central bank, the
economy ministry and the petrochemical sector to develop new foreign-currency
financing tools, calling them critical for sustaining project development.
Abbaszadeh said several major projects, including Bidboland Persian
Gulf, Hoveyzeh and flare gas recovery schemes, help address the country’s
energy imbalance by collecting dispersed gas streams. About $3.8 billion has
already been invested in flare gas collection, including the construction of
nearly 1,000 km of pipelines across four provinces, he said.
Once completed, these projects are expected to collect around 1.5
billion cubic feet of gas per day, equivalent to about 42 million cubic metres,
exceeding current petrochemical feedstock consumption, he added.
Iran’s petrochemical industry consumes about 9% of the country’s total
gas output, Abbaszadeh said, expressing hope that new energy efficiency
structures would help secure more stable feedstock supplies.
Central Bank Governor Mohammad Reza Farzin said the bank had
prioritised financing production and had designed new foreign-currency funding
instruments to support projects requiring hard currency. He said Iran had so
far issued six rounds of foreign-currency sukuk worth $510 million, with a
seventh round valued at $150 million launched on Tuesday, of which $70 million
was issued at the ceremony.
Farzin said the financing would raise the valuation of Bandar Imam
Petrochemical to about $400 million. He added that the central bank plans to
issue $1.5 billion in foreign-currency bonds this year and is finalising
additional instruments, including foreign-currency fixed-income and project
funds, in cooperation with the economy ministry and the capital market
regulator.
National Development Fund head Mehdi Ghazanfari said diversified
financing tools would reduce direct reliance on the fund and the central bank,
while Trade Bank of Iran CEO Hadi Akhlaghi said the bank was confident in the
creditworthiness of Khalij Fars Holding and expected all commitments under the
murabaha bond programme to be met.