NPC attended PROGAS-2001 Exhibition that was held on 11-14 October 2001 in Cairo, Egypt.Due to the importance of Egypt as an export market for the NPC's products and engineering services, a top ranking delegation consisting of the NPC's Director of Projects, Mr. Seyed Hassan Sadat and Iran Petrochemical Commercial Co.'s Chairman and Managing Director Mohammad Ehtiati represented NPC at the event.In addition to introducing the petrochemical products that it can market in Egypt, the NPC team promoted the NPC's technical capabilities for implementing Egypt's petrochemical projects. Meanwhile, the NPC delegation met with the Egyptian Oil Minister HE Sameh Fahmy & discussed a joint venture ethylene project that is planned to be built on the coast of the Gulf of Suez, Egypt. Mr. Fahmy's undersecretaries for Distribution & Marketing, Shamel Hamdy and Gas Affairs, Sherif Ismail were present at the meeting. They reviewed the project's feedstock and site. NPC and Egyptian General Petroleum Co are conducting a joint feasibility study for the 1,000,000-t/y ethylene project, based on gas composition, land infrastructure and utilities availability. Mr. Sadat told NPC News Bulletin that, "the discussions were constructive. We were encouraged by HE Fahmy's support and verification that there would be gas feed for the project while it was previously planned to consume naphtha. The facility's downstream products will be decided after due market analysis during feaibility study."

Egyptian Oil Minister HE Sameh Fahmy

Representatives from the NPC Public Relations Department and Iran Petrochemical Commercial CO. (IPCC) were present at the 66th Thessaloniki International Exhibition in Greece that was held on 8-16 September 2001.They provided information on the NPC's exportable products, including polymers, chemicals, aromatics and LPG. They also furnished the visitors with information on the NPC's development projects in Bandar Imam Petrochemical Special Economic Zone and Assaluyeh. Tens of Greek companies showed interest to purchase their petrochemical requirements from NPC. Several other companies proposed to act as the NPC's marketing agent in Greece.

" There is no incident that cannot be prevented"
The national safety day was held at Bandar Imam Petrochemical Complex (BIPC). At the ceremony, attended by Deputy Petroleum Minister and NPC President, Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh and members of the NPC's board of directors, a message from the Petroleum Minister HE Bijan Namdar Zanganeh was read out to the audience. Mr. Zanganeh said in his message that "Oil industry is an industry with many hazards where the outbreak of an incident not only results in the loss of manpower, the prime asset of the society, but also imposes heavy burden on the country's national economy. There is no doubt that, Iran's oil industry, which has taken a great leap in the path of development, will not be able to achieve its goals without inclusion of effective and updated safety principles in the projects". Speaking at the ceremony, NPC President said, "There is no incident that cannot be prevented. All incidents can be controlled and prevented". Nematzadeh said that with the application of safety standards and principles the likelihood of industrial incidents could be minimized. He called for further necessary safety training for the NPC personnel, especially the younger employees so that they can observe the safety codes in their working environment and activities. Nematzadeh expressed hope that with the observation of safety regulations, incidents in the oil industry would reduce to zero. At the ceremony, the managing directors of four of the NPC production complexes, Razi, Shiraz, Arak and Esfahan, received awards in recognition of observation and practice of safety regulations and the highest work-without incident rates in their complexes.

A representative from NPC attended the World Oil & Gas Public Affairs Seminar that was held at Regent's College, London from 8-12 October.During this one-week seminar a wide range of public relations and public affairs functions and issues were discussed. Global issues facing the oil and gas industry formed core of this seminar. Representatives from Nigeria, Malaysia, Angola and Venezuela also took part at the event. The course was intended for senior managers and executives in public relations and public affairs departments. Some topics discussed at the event included public affairs strategy and corporate strategy, strategic government relations and media relations, managing crisis communication, employee relation and internal communication, E-business and internet enabled public relations.

NPC took part at the 70th Izmir International Fair, which was held during 26 August-3 September 2001 in Izmir, Turkey. NPC was represented at the event by two of its subsidiaries Iran Petrochemical Commercial CO. (IPCC) and Tabriz Petrochemical Co. (TPC). Turkey imports its petrochemicals mainly from European countries and the US. Because of their vicinity to Iran, Turkish companies are interested to provide their petrochemicals requirements from Iran, especially from TPC which lies close to the Turkish border with Iran. Turkish companies that visited NPC's pavilion at the Izmir Fair expressed their interest to buy petrochemicals products from TPC and IPCC.