Swiss company Casale SA and National Petrochemical Company explored grounds for providing Iranian companies with their much needed technology and licenses.
According to NIPNA, NPC's official news agency, talks were held with the Swiss firm in Italy on the sidelines of "Milan Plast 2018 Exposition" on Saturday.
Casale SA is a privately owned Swiss Company, wholly owned by Casale Holding, with headquarters in Lugano (Switzerland).
"The two sides negotiated different ways of technology transfer, licensing of core technologies, long-term assistance, site assistance and site construction services," NPC's Managing Director Reza Norouz-Zadeh said.
NIPNA added that Casale is expected to provide NPC with a list of full range engineering services as well as equipment and materials supply in the near future, upon which talks will continue to choose the most economical options.
According to Norouz-Zadeh, Casale has already played an active role in Iran's lucrative petrochemical industry and NPC is interested in expanding its collaboration with the Swiss-based enterprise.
"Casale SA has approved the quality of methanol synthesis catalyst that was produced by Iran's Petrochemical Research and Technology Company," he said.
The firm has provided industrial units in Zanjan, Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari and Golestan provinces with the know-how to complete urea and ammonia production projects.
Tehran earned $9.55 billion in revenues from petrochemical exports last year, official data show. Petrochemical consignments went mostly to Asia, Europe and South America.
Iran holds some of the world's largest crude oil and natural gas reserves, but its petrochemical industry is comparatively underdeveloped.
Tehran says its new petrochemical ventures require over $70 billion in investments that should mostly come from foreign sources.
NPC aims to expand Iran's petrochemical production map under a plan covering new investment areas from West Azarbaijan Province to central and southern regions across the Persian Gulf coast.
The new ventures are chiefly aimed at producing propylene and olefins from methanol, a liquid chemical derived from natural gas.
Petrochemical is Iran's most important industry after oil and gas. NPC hopes to lift nominal output capacity to more than 120 million tons per annum by 2022, the last year of Iran's Sixth Five-Year Economic Development Plan.
