TEHRAN — Iran has attracted some $4.5 billion in joint venture within the past three years for petrochemical projects, the managing director of the National Petrochemical Company (NPC) of Iran said here on Saturday.

“The NPC has invested $125 million to earn 40 of the stakes in a Philippine-based petrochemical unit named RELIANCE NPC,” Gholam-Hossein Nejabat explained, IRNA reported.
“The company has also participated in some other joint investment plans with countries like Indonesia, Oman, Singapore, India, Venezuela and the United Arab Emirates,"" he added.
Nejabat, also the oil deputy minister for petrochemical affairs, referred to Laleh Petrochemical Company’s annual production of 300,000 tons of heavy polyethylene and said, “The unit was constructed with $300 million joint venture by the NPC, Polymer Pushine Company and Germany’s SABIK Company.”
“The NPC, Sweden’s Comator, Germany’s Hansa Chemistry, and Iran Petrochemical Commercial Company (IPCC) have invested about $270 million in the Karoon Petrochemical unit’s first phase which is about to become operational. Other $350 million have been also spent on the unit’s second phase which physical progress has reached over 50 percent,” he stated.
“The NPC and South Africa’s Sasol Company have invested $1.2 billion in Aria Sasol Company in order to produce 1 million tons of ethylene yearly. The unit will be inaugurated in the near future,” the deputy minister for petrochemical affairs added.
“Mehr Petrochemical Complex is among the other joint investments of NPC and foreign companies. The Alliance Petrochemical consortium, including Japan’s Itochu Company, Thailand’s SCG chemical and PTT companies, owns 60 percent of the complex’s share,” he said.
Nejabat also noted that the NPC has signed the contract of partnership with PURSI Company, Indonesia’s fertilizer producer.
“The NPC, the IPCC and Oman Oil Company have signed a contract to establish a joint company named Hormoz Company and in the near future a tender will be held in order to introduce the appropriate contractor,” he concluded