Beginning of the Release of Blocked Equipment in Iran's Petrochemical Industry

On Tuesday, November 2, the state news agency IRNA reported the gradual release of blocked equipment in Iran's petrochemical industry. IRNA quoted Marzieh Shahdaei, the director of projects at the National Petrochemical Company, stating that Italian and German companies have collaborated in the release of the confiscated equipment, and some equipment for various projects has been delivered to Iran. The released equipment includes materials and machinery that, according to the director of projects at the National Petrochemical Company, had been confiscated due to sanctions imposed on Iran by foreign companies. According to IRNA, the confiscation of oil and petrochemical industry equipment had left many of Iran's large projects unfinished; for many of these pieces of equipment, due to high technology, it was not possible to produce them domestically. Some of the equipment purchased for Iran's petrochemical projects, according to Marzieh Shahdaei, had been confiscated at the source, and sellers, despite having signed contracts with Iran, refused to fulfill their commitments and withheld the delivery of the purchased equipment to Iran. The alignment of foreign companies, especially European companies, with the sanctions process was such that, according to this official from the National Petrochemical Company, some companies even returned ships that had loaded the equipment purchased by Iran to ports and confiscated the equipment. Marzieh Shahdaei further told IRNA that in the past two months, as negotiations with the P5+1 approached their final stages and foreign companies became confident that Iran and the P5+1 would reach an agreement, the release of equipment began. According to her, some of this equipment is currently even installed in projects, and some companies, specifically Siemens of Germany, have released several turbo compressors that they had confiscated. After the negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program failed during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency in November 2011, the U.S. intensified pressure on the Islamic Republic and, alongside imposing sanctions in various areas, also sanctioned Iran's petrochemical industry. On July 1, 2012, the European Union also effectively sanctioned Iran's petrochemical industry by imposing sanctions on the import of crude oil and petrochemical products from Iran. Iran's annual petrochemical production capacity is about 60 million tons, while after the sanctions, Iran had to reduce its production to 40 million tons. Last year, this figure increased to 44 million tons, and for this year, it is expected to reach 51 million tons. Iran claims that with the lifting of sanctions, it will increase its petrochemical exports by up to 25%, an income that is not much less than oil revenues.