NPC Investment Director: Iran's private petrochemical companies can invest in Azerbaijan - INTERVIEW

Moscow. 14 April. REPORT.AZ/ The Russian bureau of Report News Agency has interviewed Investment Director of the Iranian National Petrochemical Company (NPC) Hossein Alimorad:

- How do you assess the development of petrochemical industry in Azerbaijan?

- We see that Azerbaijan is developing in the petrochemical industry.However, without additional investments, it will be difficult to achieve significant success, as world's petrochemical market is very tough.

Iran can help Azerbaijan in the development of this sphere, which will allow the country to enter the world market faster.

There is  a permanent Iranian delegation in Azerbaijan, which works with Azerbaijani partners.

The petrochemical sector in Iran has recently been denationalized and so far there have been no joint projects with the Azerbaijani side. But there are consultations on this topic.

- And what kind of real help can Iran provide to Azerbaijan? How much is the Iranian leadership interested in this?

- Ayatollah Hamenei asked me to provide ideas on which cooperation with Azerbaijan can go.The first is engineering and construction cooperation. The second is expert assistance: we could provide specialists in this field to the Azerbaijani side, who will help in launching the plants.

The third is assistance in designing capacities:Iran can help in strategic planning for the development of the petrochemical industry, from calculating the viability of projects to launching production.

Our private petrochemical companies can pay a visit to Azerbaijan with direct investment opportunities.

Another way to help is to provide modern petrochemical equipment at prices much lower than European or American counterparts, which will help to reduce the cost of production and new projects.

The presentation of the Azerbaijani side pleasantly surprised me.I invited Farid Jafarov to Iran to get acquainted with our achievements in the petrochemical industry.I also hope to visit Azerbaijan, where I will see firsthand about the capacities that were previously heard in Sumgait.

- What kind of contacts do Iran have today with Azerbaijani oil companies?

- The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) and the Iranian National Oil Company (NIOC) are cooperating actively. But they are state-owned companies and proceed from the interests of their own states. Contacts are weak between private companies in this area.

Now there is a permanent committee for cooperation with Azerbaijan in the energy sector, which is under the control of the Iranian Oil Ministry. He is looking for opportunities for joint projects.

- How much did withdrawal of Western sanctions affect the oil industry in Iran?

- Despite Western sanctions, we continued strategic planning of oil industry in these years. Of course, the sanctions made some delays in implementing the plans, but they were not significantly affected by them. After the lifting of the sanctions, we were able to work more extensively with international partners.

Now, for example, there are negotiations with six other countries on investments in the petrochemical industry in Iran.I will not disclose all the details, but if the negotiations succeed, it will be a serious achievement. In addition, Iran is negotiating in the field of petro chemistry with some countries in South-East Asia. There is an additional short-term financing program for the petrochemical sector of Iran from the countries of South Asia. This became possible due to the fact that Iran fulfilled all its financial obligations earlier. Unlike us, some European countries are slow to fulfill their obligations to Iran.

- And how do environmentalists refer to development of petrochemical industry in Iran, because it is known that this is one of the most polluting industries?

- There is a national regulation of environmental purity of production in Iran, based on international norms and standards. Any petrochemical production in the country must necessarily undergo an health and safety impact assessment.

The production in all Iranian petroleum tanks takes into account the norms of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. Financing of a project is impossible without determining its harm to the environment. We are seriously working on this because we want our people and our neighbors to be healthy.