Iranian President Seyyed Mohammad Khatami has said that NPC's forthcoming projects will have drastic and far-reaching effects on the Iranian economy.
Speaking during the official inaugural ceremony for phases 2 and 3 of the South Pars gas field in Assaluyeh, south of Iran, President Khatami who is also Chairman of the NPC's General Assembly backed NPC's programs to develop the Iranian petrochemical sector reiterating that "the government is serious and resolute in supporting the development of the petrochemical industry."
Pointing to the NPC's grass roots projects which are under construction in Assaluyeh he said, "when these world-scale projects are completed, Iran will earn $3.5bn from the export of its petrochemical products by 2005."
NPC is currently building six world-scale facilities in Assaluyeh. They include 9th and 10th olefins, 4th aromatics, 4th methanol, 4th urea/ammonia plus a centralized utility plant.
He emphasized that "prudence dictates us to convert oil and gas to products with higher value-added" adding that "development of petrochemical industry in Iran is not confined to South Pars region, rather, twenty projects are currently under construction in the country."
Speaking at the same ceremony, Iran's petroleum minister, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said that in addition to the current projects which are under construction at Pars Special Economic/Energy Zone "various other projects are on NPC's agenda in the same area in which foreign and domestic parties can invest either independently or in partnership with NPC." He said,"what we witness today in this area, is the first phase of petrochemical projects in Assaluyeh in which some $5bn will be invested."





As the Iranian President Seyyed Mohammad Khatami has recently reiterated (News Bulletin, #37), petrochemicals are set to play a major role in the Iranian economy especially as NPC's many projects start to bloom in coming years.
As NPC starts to assume a more prominent role in the international petrochemical markets, both as an exporter and producer, it will have a major part as a big currency earner for Iran. Until now oil has remained at the heart of the Iranian economy but the country's oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh now is openly discussing his vision for Iran to capitalize on its huge gas reserves.
Other key Iranian officials are also backing his plan. Second to gas, are plans for Iran to emerge as a world class petrochemicals player.
Petrochemicals currently contribute around 1.6% to Iran's national GDP. But, by 2005 this figure is expected to increase to around 2.1%. NPC president M. R. Nematzadeh is confident that by 2006, petrochemicals will contribute at least $3.5 billion in export revenues for Iran. That figure currently stands at $900 million.
One analyst has recently said that a combination of a growing consumer market for petrochemical related products, company management and Iran's excellent natural resources namely gas, means that NPC is insulated against any economic downturn.
Certainly NPC's reputation is strong with the international banking world and Nematzadeh makes no secret of the excellent relationship, which his company enjoys with foreign banks.
As part of this relationship, the NPC's team of financial experts are now looking at ways to restructure their project financing arrangements with respective financial houses.



NPC's relationship with the investment world is also key to the company's ambitious plans to become an international petrochemicals player.
NPC has several big and world scale projects either in the process of being developed or already under construction.
Several NPC's projects at its specifically designated Petrochemical Special Economic Zone at Bandar Imam will come on-stream during 2003-04.
Amongst these projects is the Maroun Petrochemical Plant which, when it comes on-stream in 2004, will host a worldscale olefins complex with an ethylene capacity of 1.1mn tonnes/year and a propylene output of 200,000 tonnes/year. Size is important as far as NPC's plans to build a major aromatics plant at Assaluyeh are concerned.
Tipped to be the world's largest aromatics plant when it becomes operational, it will have a capacity of 1.3 million tonnes/year.
Also planned for Assaluyeh are two other olefins plants one of which will be an ethane-based ethylene cracker of 1 million tonnes/year.
Plans are already in place to build a number of new plastics plants which will boost NPC's existing polymers capacity from around 900,000 tonnes/year to over 4 million tonnes/year in just a few years. NPC welcomes foreign companies to participate in all areas, whether it is to help build a worldscale plant, cooperate in R&D or cooperate on marketing.