Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 2
By Emil Ilgar – Trend:
Indians want to purchase the needed natural gas (methane) as feedstock from Iran at $40 per 1000 cubic meters, but Tehran rejected.
“Oil ministry would not go undercharging for encouraging foreign investments,” Marzieh Shahdaei, the head of National Iranian Petrochemical Company told IRNA Nov.2.
She added that Indians put the precondition for involving a project in Chabahar port, aimed to produce urea and ammonia. “They wanted to purchase gas as feedstock at 4-5 cents per cubic meters, but we don’t agree with this figure,” she underlined.
Iran puts gas feedstock price for petrochemical plants at $80 per 1000 cubic meters, two times less than Indians’ offered level.
Recently, the Indian Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said May 23 that India is ready invest $20 billion in the development of the Iranian south-eastern port of Chabahar. A part of this volume was projected to be allocated to petrochemical plants.
Chabahar is located in the Gulf of Oman on the border with Pakistan.
Iran plans to turn Chabahar into its third largest petrochemical hub, after Asaluyeh and Mahshahr, with some investment of 10 to 12 billion dollars.
