Russia finds new source of catalysts in Iran as West stops trade

Iran’s deputy minister of petroleum and the CEO of National Petrochemical Company (NPC) says Russia has used nearly one ton of Iranian-made petrochemical catalysts in its petrochemical complexes, noting that their demand for new purchases is rising despite the US sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Referring to the negotiations that have been held since April with Russian delegations over the export of Iranian catalysts, Deputy Minister Morteza Shahmirzaei was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying that, “Russian plants have placed new orders for the purchase of catalysts."

The NPC director said “Russians were impressed by the quality of the catalysts. They believed that the quality of the Iranian catalysts was high and can compete with the best in the world,” reiterating that to have a dynamic economy in the country, attention must be paid to petrochemical industry.

Iran signed a contract to supply Russia with 40 turbines to help its gas industry amid Western sanctions, the ministry of petroleum's Shana news agency said in October.  

Shahmirzaei said 70 petrochemical companies with an annual production capacity of 90 million tons are operating, and the final sale of products has reached about 25 billion dollars.

MG