Gholamreza Jamshidi described the National Petrochemical Company’s arbitration role in utility pricing as a positive step, adding that challenges facing the petrochemical industry should be resolved within the industry itself. Delegating arbitration authority to the National Petrochemical Company, he said, was a highly professional move.

He stressed the need for decisions that safeguard investment appeal in the petrochemical sector, noting that utility units play a supporting role for production complexes. Therefore, pricing mechanisms must ensure that production remains economically justified for consuming facilities.

Petrochemicals as a Pillar of Forex Revenue

Jamshidi said the petrochemical industry is one of the country’s main sources of foreign currency earnings. As such, he said, the industry’s economic justification should be viewed across the entire value chain to help attract more investment.

He added that investors are calling for price stability in the upstream sector and feedstock supply. Prices, he said, should be set so that projects based on feasibility studies — and factoring in projected payback periods — remain economically viable for at least five years.

Without a stable investment environment, fluctuations in decision-making will inevitably create multiple challenges for the petrochemical industry, he said.

NPC’s Industry Oversight

Jamshidi noted that only a limited percentage of petrochemical companies are in the hands of the true private sector. Moving the industry toward genuine privatization, he said, would contribute to economic growth and dynamism.

He said petrochemical companies, by delegating authority over utility pricing to the National Petrochemical Company, expect the regulator — given its role and standing in the industry — to make comprehensive and fair decisions that benefit the entire sector.

Jamshidi added that each industry requires its own specialists and that assigning oversight of the petrochemical sector to non-specialized entities could create significant challenges. He said oversight, performance evaluation, identification of obstacles and management of petrochemical companies in the upstream segment should be handled by the National Petrochemical Company, with sufficient authority granted to it within a framework that ensures its decisions are effective.