TEHRAN (FNA)- Turkish and South Korean companies are slated to sign new contracts with Iranian petrochemical companies on Tuesday despite the US-led western sanctions imposed against the Islamic Republic.Iranian companies are due to endorse several contracts with foreign firms in a bid to expedite development projects in the Southern port city of Mahshahr, Khuzestan province, which is an Iranian petrochemical hub.
In the same line, Arvand Petrochemical Company as one of worlds biggest PVC producers will ink a contract with a Turkish company tomorrow to develop its projects in Mahshahr.
Meantime, two other Iranian private companies are due to sign a contract with a South Korean firm.
The recent sanctions imposed on Iran by the US and its allies have provided other countries with a good chance to broaden their presence in Iran's economic projects, specially in the energy and petrochemical sectors.
After the UN Security Council ratified a sanctions resolution against Iran on June 9, 2010, the United States and the European Union imposed further unilateral sanctions against the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program, mostly targeting the country's energy and banking sectors.
Tehran has always dismissed West's pressures and stressed that sanctions and embargos merely consolidate Iranians' national resolve to continue the path of progress and will harm the economies of the supporters of sanctions.
Meantime, analysts believe that the US-led EU has started implementing the sanctions against Iran at a time when it is experiencing its worst economic conditions.
The US blacklisted eight companies in Irans petrochemical industry late last month. Most of the companies are private. The petrochemical companies owned or controlled by the Iranian government that are on the Treasury Department list include Bandar Imam Petrochemical Co, Bou Ali Sina Petrochemical Co and Mobin Petrochemical Co.
Earlier this month, Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Abdolhossein Bayat downplayed the effectiveness of the western sanctions, and said Tehran has adopted and implemented different strategies to bypass the embargos and has no worries about exports of its petrochemical products.
Although we have been under the US sanctions for over 34 years, we grew even more vigilant when the new wave of tougher sanctions was raised by the US and fortunately we succeeded in adopting fundamental and strategic measures to bypass the embargos, Bayat, who also chairs the National Petrochemical Company (NPC), told FNA.
He said that expanding Irans cargo fleet to increase exports of petrochemical products instead of crude oil, indigenizing petrochemical production technologies and producing millions of products from crude oil in a way that they cannot be easily sanctioned by the western states are among the measures adopted by the oil ministry to counter the embargos.
Bayat underlined that Iran is not concerned about export of its petrochemical products since it has various customers across the world while there is also a growing demand for home-made petrochemical products in the Iranian market.
Bayat said the new sanctions have targeted products of some Iranian petrochemical plants, including Tabriz petrochemical complex, whose products are consumed only in the domestic market.
By Fars News
The Iran Project is not responsible for the content of quoted articles.
