In his speech to the IPF 2000, Luigi Patron, Chairman & CEO of Snamprogetti SpA of Italy referred to Iran's strong feedstock position, availability of infrastructure and growing domestic market and maintained that the country has excellent potentials for becoming a major petrochemical producer in the Middle East. "With the world's second largest reserves of natural and associated gas, providing almost unlimited petrochemical feedstock, a growing population of over sixty million and a favorable location for exporting, Iran clearly has an excellent potential to become a major producer of petrochemicals in the Middle East".

Luigi Patron, Chairman & CEO of Snamprogetti SpA

   However, he added that important technological and managerial choices had to be made to ensure the profitability and financeability of the NPC's NGL-based development projects.
   He concluded that "technological advantages combined with other clear advantages that Iran is able to offer will make petrochemical projects attractive to prospective foreign and local investors and suitable for international project financing with the help of investment banks".

   Speaking about the role of Snamprogetti in developing Iran's petrochemical industry, Patron underscored, "capitalizing on its years of experience in this country and its strong working relations with qualified local operators, Snamprogetti is ready to be a cooperative flexible counterpart to Iranian investors".