TEHRAN- German-based company, Linde AG, in collaboration with Japanese company, Mitsui & Co., are planning to invest $4 billion in a number of Iran’s petrochemical projects, said Marzieh Shahdaie, the director for projects at the National Petrochemical Company (NPC).  

“Linde AG and Mitsui & Co. were among the companies which had negotiated with us about the general conditions of Iran’s petrochemical industry before the implementation of Iran’s nuclear deal with the world powers,” Shahdaie told the IRNA news agency on Monday.

Now that the sanctions are lifted, she said, the two companies have held further talks on investing in Iran’s petrochemical sector, however, she added, the agreement is not final yet.

Linde AG, the multinational industrial gases and engineering company, is the world's largest industrial gas company and Mitsui & Co. is one of the largest general trading companies in Japan.

Iran plans to raise its petrochemical production to around 129 million tons by the end of the country’s sixth five-year development plan (2021).   

Officials say the country has the capacity to produce 60 million tons of petrochemicals per annum.  

On January 30, Shahdaie said the Iranian petrochemical sector should attract $8-10 billion finance per annum mainly through foreign direct investment. 

The government has announced that Iran’s priority is buying technical knowledge rather than equipment from the other countries.

Last December, Mohammad-Hassan Peyvandi, the deputy managing director of the NPC, said Iran’s annual petrochemical output is planned to reach 46 million tons by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 19, 2016).  

He put the country’s petrochemical production at 44 million tons in the previous calendar year.  

SJ/MA/