Iran and the French energy giant Total are expected to finalize a $2 billion deal by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2017), a report said.
"In recent months, Total has assessed petrochemical projects in Iran and reviewed the status of feed stock. Now, their final plan is ready and the contract will be finalized in near future," Adel Salimnejad, the managing director of Iran’s Persian Gulf Holding Company, said, Xinhua reported.
He added that Iran and Total had signed an initial deal back in January, 2015, following a lasting nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.
Salimnejad said the French company had been studying Iran’s petrochemical sector over the past months, adding that it has already picked a project to develop for which a final agreement will be accordingly signed.
There has been growing enthusiasm for ties and cooperation with Iran since the nuclear deal between Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) took effect on January 16.
The deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), terminated all nuclear-related sanctions on Iran and prepared the ground for a much-anticipated economic boom.
Moreover, Iran exported more than 10 million tons of petrochemical products worth nearly $4.3 billion in the first half of the current Iranian year (started on March 21), reported Reuters.The rise in Iran's exports of petrochemical products has been in line with the strategy to withhold raw material exports.
Considering the limits on consumption of petrochemical products in the domestic market, most of the outputs are export-oriented.
Asian markets are the target for Iranian petrochemical products and the European markets have yet to open to Iranian goods.
