Rent without account and books of public – private Petrochemical Holdings / instead of completing the value chain, we only copy the license

According to the reporter of Energy Press, completing the value chain is the biggest challenge of Iran’s petrochemical industry. It is said that out of 300 types of petrochemical products of intermediate industries, only 30 types are produced in Iran and this statistic shows the depth of the disaster of Iran’s backwardness in the petrochemical industry. An industry that supplies half of the country’s currency and has also helped to circumvent Iran’s sanctions. Mehdi Khajepour, an economic expert, believes that sanctions are the most important reason for the backwardness of Iran’s petrochemical industry in the world. He told “Energy Press” about this: The early years of the development of the petrochemical industry coincided with the Iran-Iraq war, as soon as Iran started the development of petrochemicals downstream and when they reached the polymer units, the country was sanctioned. The embargo took us away from the knowledge of the world and caused us to copy the license.

We copy the license

He continued: For example, Denmark’s Topsoy company has a license that we copy, and other licenses are copied in the same way. We don’t have access to the world’s modern knowledge and we are still limping at the basic level, which makes us limited to the ones that were produced in the past. None of our plants are new and all are previous copies, therefore new products are not produced.

The embargo prevented the completion of the value chain

Khajapour said about the role of sanctions: during the Rouhani period, after the JCPOA was concluded, BSF company requested cooperation with Iran to produce new products. A large company that covered the entire value chain. He was even supposed to make the required investment himself, but he encountered bumps and finally we were sanctioned again and the work was stopped.

He added: “Big foreign companies were trying to bring new products to Iran’s petrochemicals, but the problem started when we could not access the licenses and technical knowledge of the day.” During Khatami’s presidency, the development of petrochemicals became serious, but after we were sanctioned, we are still copying what happened.

The development pattern cannot be copied

This economic activist stated that the development model cannot be copied and said: Of course, in countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia, anything can be done because the resources are very cheap, but in other countries, the development model is developed based on a series of factors, which we have a number of We have them in Iran, and one of the most important factors is the resources that exist in Iran; Another factor is utility and human resources, after that factors such as land price, access to water, access to export resources, etc. are raised.

We do not move based on market needs

Regarding measuring the market needs, he added: A country like Canada measures based on market needs and provides supply based on demand, but this does not happen in Iran. It’s a basic thing that kids are taught and told that supply and demand must be equal or this economy doesn’t work.

We develop without need assessment

Khajapour continued by giving examples in this field: We see that, for example, the sale of methanol is in demand in the world and is profitable, everyone in Iran starts to produce methanol, or we see that urea or ammonia is needed in agriculture, and all the holdings start producing at once. They make urea and ammonia. They must be able to be present in the world’s competitive market. The volume they supply makes them unable to control the market and customers, which is one of our basic problems in the development of petrochemicals and product diversity.

State economy is an obstacle to completing the value chain

Pointing out that Iran’s economy is a completely state economy, he said: We do not have a free economy, and after privatization, this story has turned into a disaster because it has become a disgrace. Before the Ahmadinejad era, we had a petrochemical industry company and a petrochemical trading company, which measured the world market and determined projects based on market needs, and the National Petrochemical Company defined budgets and planned based on market needs.

Attributes are not responsible

This energy expert added: At that time, the government was responsible and every error that happened had to be answered and it could not define and then abandon the projects, but after privatization, a series of Khusulti holdings were formed, each of which is connected to a government institution, and these They don’t have government accountability and they don’t have private performance either. The same government managers went to the private sector with the same way of working and they work without considering the needs of the market and without macro planning. While a place like Saudi Arabia is attentive to all points. In other countries of the world, only the economy speaks. In other countries, you cannot start a project like Gachsaran Petrochemical in 1984 and still change the contractor and CEO in 1402. Or define petrochemicals when it has been on the ground for 15 years. The patterns that exist in Iran do not match anywhere in the world.

Property rent hinders the development of the petrochemical industry

In response to the question whether oil and gas reserves could help the development of petrochemicals, Khajepour said: Oil and gas could and can create development because it creates money and money creates development, but if oil and gas are to be If you give a series of holding companies a rent that allows them to earn money, you are actually putting a hat on yourself.

Cheap feed rent for public – private holdings

He said about the feed of petrochemical companies: the problem is that they want to support Khusulti holdings without any calculations and this is a mistake against the country, while they should release the price and the same price it sold to the world. It can also be sold to petrochemicals. Here they say that selling raw materials, which I think is a justification for selling raw materials, because if you cannot make a profit with this cheap labor force and this amount of expert labor and close access to resources, this economy is wrong. And such work should not be continued.

This expert added: Iran has the best facilities, including engineers, manufacturers, cheap and readily available utilities, water, and the best geographical location, and if there were no sanctions, this country would have turned into an energy hub. In such a situation, you should be able to have profitable products. Why is cheap feed given to petrochemicals? There are a series of unaccountable holdings that have a government function and private accountability; Giving cheap feed to these petrochemicals is wrong; You are carrying a spoiled child like this!

We have so much money that we don’t worry about wasting resources

At the end of his speech, Khajepour said that we should be optimistic about the prospect of Iran’s petrochemical development, because we have to be optimistic, and said: It is a mechanism that we must do our best for, but with this management system, the situation will continue in the same way. Because there is so much wealth that nothing happens and it’s not like petrochemicals are going bankrupt. In other countries, economic discussion is the most important issue, and if a project is not in line with the economy, they stop the project quickly, but in Iran, unfortunately, because we do not look at the matter properly, we get confused, we enter into a project and we have so much money that we no longer worry about wasting it.