Iran answer to sanctions

[somebozo]

Privatize baby privatize

Iran bent on privatizing petrochemical industry: Oil minister
PressTV - Iran bent on privatizing petrochemical industry: Oil minister


Iran’s Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi says despite Western sanctions against Iran’s oil industry, the country is considering plans to privatize its petrochemical industry, Press TV reports.


“All petrochemical plants are going to be privatized and from now on we will increase our support for private companies to engage and invest in this field,” he said Wednesday after inaugurating a number of petrochemical facilities in Asalouyeh, south Iran.

The minister stated that with support from the government, there will be a major movement toward developing Iran’s midstream and downstream petrochemical industries.

Mostafa Mortazavi, the managing director of Jam Petrochemical Company, told reporters that despite sanctions “we have managed to build one of the world’s largest and most advanced butene 1 production units.”

“The unit is able to produced 100 tons of butene 1 per year. In addition to meeting the country’s domestic needs, we are now able to export our products to other countries and we have already signed a contract with a buyer in southern Europe,” the official added.

According to a Press TV correspondent, the butene-1 complex is a division of Jam petrochemical company worth USD 120 million which has made Iran one of the biggest producers of butene 1 in the world.

Jam Petrochemical Company is a private Iranian company with an annual manufacturing capacity of 1.32 million tons of petrochemical products.

The butene-1 facility was built by Iranian experts at a time when Iran’s petrochemical industry is facing unilateral sanctions by the US and the European Union over the country’s nuclear energy program.

The Iranian government hopes that by encouraging private companies to further engage in petrochemical market, it can decrease dependence on the export of raw materials such as crude oil and natural gas and focus more on non-oil exports with more added value.

The National Petrochemical Company, in line with that policy, has announced that it plans to invest more than 50 billion dollars in supporting development of private petrochemical projects by 2015.

SS/HGH

 

[lem34]

Iran is showing its metal that it will not be bullied. A wonderful example of defiance in the face of injustice