Negotiations were held with several international banks and financial institutions to facilitate repatriation of revenues generated through sales of petrochemical products, managing director of the Petrochemical Commercial Company International (PCCI) said, ILNA reported Monday.
"Hopefully the negotiations would yield results in the near future," Issa Mashayekhi said, noting that investing in Iran's petrochemical industry is a sound option "as foreign investors can find a lucrative market here."
Iran's abundant oil and natural gas reserves have given rise to huge development potentials, and now is the best time for international companies to exploit such capacities, according to the official. "However, foreign investment is contingent on the ongoing nuclear talks and whether a final agreement would be reached by next July."
The US and its allies imposed sanctions on Iran to curb the country's nuclear program, which the West claims is geared to military use. Iran insists the program is peaceful. On November 24, 2013, Iran and the P5+1 (China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States) reached an interim deal, whereby Iran will continue to get access to $700 million a month from oil-export revenues held in accounts frozen by US sanctions.
Moreover, insurers can underwrite ships transporting Iranian goods, and European and US companies can again purchase Iranian petrochemicals under the interim deal. But as the two sides failed to meet a self-imposed Nov. 2014 deadline for resolving the dispute, they gave themselves until the end of June for further negotiations.
Although the interim deal delisted sales of Iranian petrochemicals from sanctioned activities and suspended the sales embargo, petrochemical exports are still hampered by western sanctions as transferring payments and securing insurance for exports have yet remained problematic for petrochemical producers.
"New investment opportunities need to be created with the aim of attracting foreign investment in petrochemical development projects," Mashayekhi asserted. The PCCI, as a wholly owned subsidiary of the National petrochemical company (NPC), is negotiating with banks and financial institutions in order to help petrochemical complexes directly receive incomes generated from exports.
A senior Iranian official has said that the country’s frozen funds are being paid on time, Shana news agency reported.
"The frozen oil money is deposited into the accounts of the Central Bank of Iran before falling due as previously agreed,” director for international affairs at National Iranian Oil Company Mohsen Qamsari said.
The NIOC official said that there has been no delay in payments, adding that the repayment timeframe differs depending on the type of the cargoes sold at the foreign markets.
Qamsari was reacting to a Bloomberg report that two Indian refineries are reimbursing part of the frozen oil revenues with a three-month delay.
