Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has opened several major energy projects which were developed with the private sector contribution.
The projects worth of $5.6 billion included two gas transfer pipelines that would carry natural gas from production facilities on the Persian Gulf to western and northwestern regions of Iran for the purpose of domestic consumption and export.
Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said the pipelines and a dispatching station also unveiled on Monday had cost $3.66 billion, including $1.5 billion in finances provided by private investors.
A $1.57-billion petrochemical plant in the city of Bushehr, on the Persian Gulf, and a $377-million power plant built in order to supply electricity to expanding oil production facilities near the Iraqi border in Khuzestan province, also came on line on Monday.
Several major energy projects were inaugurated in Iran on the occasion of the Government Week (August 24-30). Photo: Shana
Opening such massive projects in Iran comes despite a series of harsh sanctions imposed by the US on the country’s energy sector.
However, Iran has relied on domestic investment and expertise to develop its massive hydrocarbon resources. The production of natural gas in the country has reached over one billion cubic meters per day of which around 80 million cubic meters are exported to neighbors like Turkey and Iraq.
Output for petrochemicals is reaching 100 million metric tons a year, a whopping figure which Rouhani said would be equal to a stable annual income of $25 billion for future administrative governments in Iran.