Iran denies reports on suspension of finance deal with China

The Iranian oil ministry denied the reports that a 20-billion-dollar finance deal between Iran and China on the development of petrochemical projects has been suspended. Iraian Mehr new agency claimed in a last week report that the agreement on financing Iran's petrochemical projects by China had been suspended, but the Oil Ministry's website, Shana, stressed that the report was baseless. According to Shana findings, the finance agreement between the two countries is a general deal and has not come into force yet, "so the speculations on its suspension are denied". Earlier Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh had expressed hope the value of petrochemical products would double to reach 40 billion dollars by intensifying efforts in the sector. According to Zanganeh, the petrochemical sector can not only wane the country off selling raw materials but can help to generating value added and complete the chain of value in downstream sector through producing various products. In the meantime, deputy managing director of National Petrochemical Company (NPC) said new prices of feedstock consumed by domestic petrochemical plants will be announced in near future after taking a final decision on the issue. Speaking to Shana, Mohammad Hosain Peyvandi said transfer of petrochemical companies under the provisions of the constitution’s article 44 has caused some challenges in view of the way of providing feedstock and setting its prices, especially due to low level of price of natural gas being delivered to some petrochemical plants. He continued under the targeting subsidies law the price of feedstock has been set based of 65 percent of FOB prices in the Persian Gulf which will remain unchanged for ten years in order to encourage investment in oil, gas and petrochemical sector; a law which needs transparency because there is no a benchmark for gas exports in Persian Gulf region.