Germany's Linde Group signed a contract worth $40 million with Kian Petrochemical Company (KPC ) on Tuesday to provide the Iranian firm with the much-needed knowhow and licenses to manufacture a range of petrochemical products with higher value added, namely olefin, butadiene, benzene and hydrodealkylation.
"Linde is willing to play a more active role in Iran's joint ventures under engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) as well as engineering, procurement, construction and financing (EPCF) contracts," Marzieh Shahdaei, managing director of National Petrochemical Company who is also deputy oil minister, said on the sidelines of a ceremony to sign the deal, IRNA reported.
Shahdaei said the deal is currently in the front end engineering design (FEED) phase, a stage before the start of EPC, in which studies are conducted to figure out technical issues and estimate rough investment costs.
Pointing to Linde's close cooperation to undertake petrochemical initiatives in South Pars projects in Asalouyeh, Shahdaei said soon after the international sanctions were lifted in January, the German enterprise expressed interest in resuming technical cooperation with Iranian companies.
Attaching importance to such contracts between the private sector and international companies, she noted, "NPC will do its best to support KPC as it believes the more powerful private sector becomes, the more foreign investment can be attracted.
She added that the contract "demonstrates closer cooperation with one the key players in petrochemical industry."
A subsidiary of the Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industry Company, Kian Petrochemical Co. is planning to carry out one of the biggest petrochemical projects in Iran that includes olefin and aromatic production units in Pars Special Economic Energy Zone.
"Plans have been made to produce 7.5 million tons of different aromatic compounds per year, including xylenes and ethylene," Shahdaei added, saying that annual feedstock for the plan will stand at 4.5 million tons including gas condensates and ethane from South Pars phases 4, 13 and 14.
-----Big Players
According to Jamshid Sabzkar, managing director of Mobin Petrochemical Company, talks are being held with German engineering giants Siemens and Linde Group to carry out projects and invest in Iran's petrochemical development projects.
"Following the removal of sanctions (in January), several meetings have been held with foreign companies on joint ventures,” Sabzkar.
According to the official, negotiations are expected to lead to a major agreement with the German heavyweights in the near future. Headquartered in Berlin and Munich, Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe with branch offices in more than 200 countries.
Several foreign delegations have recently visited Iran and held negotiations for new opportunities in the country's resurging petrochemical sector.
German companies have been the most eager in wanting to restart business with Iran and are projected to make over $12 billion in investment in Iran’s petrochemical industry.
The latest round of negotiations took place in Tehran in mid-April with representatives from Germany's major industrial players, including Linde Group and Siemens, to provide Iran's unfinished petrochemical projects with advanced machinery and equipment.
Reportedly, 70% of Iran's petrochemical machinery is manufactured by Linde and Siemens.
Linde Group, founded in Germany in 1879, is a multinational industrial gases and engineering company. It is the world's largest industrial gas company by market share and revenue.
The group has over 600 affiliated companies in more than 100 countries, with customers in the industrial, retail, trade, science, research and public sectors.
