India plans $3 billion petrochemical plant in Iran
State-owned oil and gas corporation Indian Oil Corp. is courting Tehran for the construction of a $3 billion petrochemical plant in Iran which owns the world’s largest proven gas reserves, media reports say.
The company plans to produce 1 million tons of petrochemicals a year provided that Iran supplies it “cheap natural gas as feedstock”, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing people with direct knowledge of the matter.
India has stepped up outreach to Iran since the conclusion of nuclear talks. No other regional country with abundant hydrocarbon reserves is closer to India than Iran in terms of distance.
In its race with China for economic prominence, New Delhi is trying to make the most from a planned lifting of anti-Iran sanctions which curbed its business with Tehran mostly because of India’s deference to the US.
The Indian government plans a number of projects worth several billion dollars in Iran, including upstream gas production, port development and metal processing.
Iran’s Ambassador to India Gholamreza Ansari recently said the Islamic Republic would welcome India's participation in various "big ticket projects" in diverse sectors.
Indian media had earlier said the country was looking for an Iranian partner to set up a urea manufacturing plant in Iran at a cost of $783 million.
A consortium of three Indian companies sought to form a joint venture with Iranian partners to build the plant in Chabahar with a capacity of 1.3 million tonnes, they said.
The facility will use Iranian natural gas as feedstock and the urea produced at the plant will be exported to India.
Last week, India's ONGC Videsh said it has submitted Iran a revised plan for development of the giant Farzad-B gas field in the Persian Gulf.
India has also signed a memorandum of understanding to develop Iran’s strategically-located Chabahar port but a commercial accord has yet to be inked in order to start the project.
New Delhi further plans to construct an aluminum smelter and a captive power plant in Iran in a project worth about $2.6 billion.
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