According to the Fars news agency, citing the public relations of the Ministry of Oil, Hossein Alimurad, the investment manager of the National Petrochemical Industries Company, pointing out that two solutions are currently being pursued by the National Petrochemical Industries Company to finance projects and help investors, said: the idea of the first solution It has come from the Ministry of Oil, that the issuance of partnership bonds is in Rial and foreign currency. We are looking for a mechanism to create a guarantee to support this partnership for the people.

Ali Murad said about the priorities of issuing these bonds: The Ministry of Oil and the National Petrochemical Industries Company have specific priorities for the implementation of petrochemical industry projects. Among the plans that have been licensed, a number of their products have strategic priority, and a series of them have priority due to their high progress and closeness to the time of exploitation. As the government, I would like to create a support or mechanism to issue bonds for a project that is more advanced, so that it can be completed and put into operation as soon as possible. So, the ability of the investor plus the priority of that plan determines for us who can use this mechanism to issue partnership bonds.

*Details of the solution to create a project fund and private investment funds to finance projects

The investment manager of the National Petrochemical Industry Company pointed out that the second solution is to create a project fund and private investment funds, adding: the implementation of private investment funds, if realized in the near future, will act as a driving engine for financing petrochemical projects in order to complete them. did This fund will be created with the participation of the holdings that export. In this regard, we are cooperating with one of the country’s banks, and we hope that the mechanism will be finalized as soon as possible. The National Company of Petrochemical Industries and the government help and oversee the implementation of this plan so that resources are distributed equally and assigned to priority projects.

He continued: The private investment fund will have, for example, foreign currency from the export of petrochemical products, and a part of the foreign currency from this export will be deposited into this fund under the supervision of the National Company of Petrochemical Industries. To implement a project, after announcing the requests and reviewing them, this fund itself will act as a bank and provide the necessary credit to the project. Various plans will be implemented by this fund, which may not necessarily be from the plans of the fund creators, because the nature of this fund is to create profits for those who created the fund.

Referring to the fact that with the creation of a project fund, a specific project can only use the resources of this fund, Alimarad said about the method of providing the resources of this fund: With the creation of the project fund and the selection of the project executive company, the specific implementation documents of this project will be published for people’s participation. . We are looking for a solution that, with the transfer of each unit of this project, at the end of the completion of the project, the transfer of the shares of that project will also take place with the priority of those who participated from the beginning of the project.

The investment manager of the National Petrochemical Industry Company while emphasizing that the mechanism of establishing a private investment fund has not yet been finalized and that the initial reviews of this plan have been completed, he said about the level of acceptance of this solution by companies and holdings: In the current situation, one of the solutions is to rely on internal resources. This is the way. This plan is a symbol of the implementation of resistance economy. Currently, financing from foreign companies, institutions and banks is either not possible, or if it is possible, it will have high costs that may make a project uneconomical. So maybe this is one of the solutions for us to implement a resistance economy and rely on domestic resources.

Pointing out that petrochemical industry projects currently require 55 billion dollars in capital, and for this reason, prioritization between projects is very important, he added: Currently, we have 105 petrochemical projects in the country, of which 64 projects are above 20%. are progressing and now we are looking to provide a financing mechanism for them, because we cannot directly help the investors to finance the projects to progress the project.

* Removal of some petrochemical plans by not renewing their license

Referring to the fact that we are deriving the prioritization of projects in a working group in cooperation with the planning management and project management of the National Petrochemical Industries Company, he said about the possibility of removing some projects: We are not officially looking to cancel a project. As long as a project does not progress and its license is not renewed, it means that the project no longer exists.

The investment manager of the National Petrochemical Company added: depending on the progress of the project, the license of the projects will be extended from 6 months to 6 months or from one year to one year. Even now, we have projects that have not been renewed, but after some time, investors report the ability to finance the project and request its implementation, and we are thinking of a mechanism to solve this problem.

* Suspension of most of the memorandums of understanding with foreign companies after the withdrawal of the United States from the JCPOA

Alimarad pointed out that 15 foreign companies had negotiations with the National Petrochemical Industries Company immediately after the JCPOA, and a cooperation and study memorandum was signed with 13 companies. In 12 of these agreements, not the end of cooperation but the suspension of cooperation has occurred, and in my opinion, considering the retreat that the American government has had in the last 6 months and exempted several countries from sanctions against Iran, and its positive effect and that by putting pressure The US government can do things, everyone is waiting to see what will happen next.

He continued: Asian companies that had investment negotiations with us did not stop these negotiations. But the European companies are walking with crutches, and finally they have to determine their duties themselves. Some of these, which are small companies, are looking for ways to continue cooperation with Iran.

* The amount of investment in the petrochemical industry since the beginning of the 11th government

The investment manager of the National Petrochemical Industry Company, pointing out that if the 13 signed memorandums come to fruition, about 15 billion dollars of investment will be made in the country, he said: about 200 thousand billion rials and 10 billion dollars so far in the petrochemical industry after the 11th government. The investment has been made.

Alimarad added: Of course, some consider financing as foreign investment. For example, we have credit lines from Asia and Europe that we are using now and there is no problem. From my point of view, foreign financing is not considered as foreign investment, as we attracted approximately 4 to 5 billion dollars in financing, and these credit lines have been effective in the 11th government.
Source: farsnews.com