NPC's President says "all the regional producers of fertilizers and other petroleum products should cooperate in order to create a healthy market for finished products." M. R. Nematzadeh who was speaking on the sidelines of a reception arranged by the Iranian Business Council in Dubai, UAE, added that fortunately, support to this initiative has already come from major regional countries keen on the downstream sector in the petrochemical industry, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar.Meanwhile, Nematzadeh, who is also Deputy Petroleum Minister, told the monthly meeting of the Iranian Business Council in UAE that a regional body, including Iran and major Persian Gulf countries is being formed to support fertilizers prices in the region. He said, "we have good business relationship and cooperation with all our neighbors.

The Gulf Fertilizer Corporation (Gulfert), a non-official organization of Persian Gulf producers of fertilizers which includes Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and UAE is a good example for that." NPC President added that the body would, in due course, expand to cover other petrochemical products in the region. Nematzadeh also stressed that there should be constant producer-consumer interaction so that major shocks in the market can be averted.
Urging investors in the UAE to invest in the Iranian petrochemical industry, he said Iran has spent a lot on the infrastructure in the country, hence there is enough scope for investing in Iran's industrial ventures.

NPC's director of planning and development told a seminar on "Middle East Energy Strategy" why Iran has selected natural gas and its derivative as the basis of developing the country's petrochemical industry.
Speaking at the petrochemical session of the "15th Annual APS Conference- Middle East Energy Strategy to the year 2014", Mohammad Hassan Peyvandi enumerated some of the justifications why Iran should use natural gas as the foundation for development of its petrochemical sector. Among others, he named the following reasons:
The availability of high ethane content in Iran's national gas grid, stability of gas prices compared to other oil-related feedstocks, limitation of crude oil production with regard to quotas set for the OPEC members, development of South Pars gas field, availability of export market.
He told the conference that the pattern of gas consumption in Iran's petrochemical industry is to shift from production of fertilizers to ethylene-based petrochemical products primarily using natural gas derivatives such as ethane, condensates and LPG.
He elaborated that recent developments in Marun, Tabnak, Pazanan and South Pars gas fields have given rise to an excellent opportunity with respect to feedstock supply opening new horizons for the Iranian petrochemical industry.
NPC's director of planning and development said that the low cash-cost of ethylene production from ethane in the Middle East along with its price stability show the region's competitiveness compared to other regions.
He told the conference that recent improvements in methane reforming technologies, including - improved Fischer-Tropsch processes for conversion of gas to liquids (GTL), production of olefins from methanol (MTO and MTP), fuel cell and dimethyl ether (DME) - have spurred NPC to conduct feasibility studies on these areas.The petrochemical session of the "15th Annual APS Conference- Middle East Energy Strategy to the year 2014" was chaired by NPC President M.R.Nematzadeh.

The Iranian petroleum minister, HE Bijan Namdar Zanganeh will officially inaugurate the fourth international "Iran Petrochemical Forum" (IPF2002) which is due to take place on 18-19 May 2002 in Tehran.
Several high-ranking Iranian government officials and senior executives from leading international companies, institutions and banks will address the forum while a host of others will attend the gathering.
Speakers include Iran's minister of petroleum; HE Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, Iran's minister of economy and finance; HE Tahmasb Mazaheri, Iran's minister of science, research and technology; HE Dr. Mostafa Moeen, deputy petroleum minister and NPC president; Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh, deputy petroleum minister and managing director of the National Iranian Oil Co.(NIOC), Seyed Mehdi Mirmoezi; Jeroen van der Veer; Shell, Michael Buzzacott; BP Chemicals, Pat Davis; Sasol, Juergon Fitschen; Deutsche Bank, Kazuhisa Marukawa, Japan Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC) and Claude Mandil, IFP.
Hundreds of Iranian and foreign delegates are expected to attend the event.
On the sidelines of the forum, an exhibition will be held at the same venue where foreign and local companies will exhibit their capabilities and expertise.