The exhibition provides an opportunity for foreign companies to get acquainted with the capabilities of Iranian firms and paves the way for the betterment of the oil industry.

The participation of 860 domestic and 505 foreign companies in the 13th International Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Exhibition from April 16 to 20 , indicates Iran’s oil industry has not only made considerable progress in various industrial and producing fields, but is also very attractive for investors worldwide.
The exhibition--one of the most important events in the oil industry--provided an opportunity for foreign companies to get acquainted with the capabilities of Iranian firms and paves the way for the betterment of the oil industry.
Managing director of National Iranian Central Oil Company (NICOC) Alireza Zeighami told Iran Daily on the sidelines of the event that the exposition creates conditions for Iranian firms to expand their involvement in implementing various projects and provide domestic oil, gas and petrochemical industries with their required equipment.
Recalling that the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has designated the year to March 2009 as a Year of Innovation and Prosperity, he noted that the NICOC’s programs and ways of expediting oil and gas projects, as stipulated in Vision 2025, will be discussed in three conferences being held concurrently with the exhibition.
“We have obliged directors of NICOC affiliated companies to present their programs for materializing the goals of ’innovation and prosperity’,“ Zeighami stated.
He noted that NICOC is to employ specialized workforces to implement ongoing projects based on schedule.
Meanwhile sales manager of Bhatia Brothers Company, Amir Emami said that despite sanctions, Iran is one of the best markets for global oil companies.
He added that the recent visit of UAE Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum to Iran created suitable grounds for expanding bilateral cooperation in the oil industry.
Referring to the 25-year history of cooperation between Bhatia Brothers Company and Iran’s oil industry, he said, “Our company is unwilling to bow to political pressure and ignore the attractive Iranian oil market.“
Director of Iranian Gas Transmission Company Khosrow Farahmand said that that Iran, with more than 13 and 18 percent of global oil and gas reserves respectively, has special status in the world.
Referring to the increasing global demand for energy, he noted that such exhibitions encourage foreign companies to make more investment in Iran and expand cooperation with local firms.
Farahmand stated that in addition to supplying a major part of global needs for energy, oil, gas and petrochemical industries play an important role in providing the country its hard currency.
The 13th Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Exhibition opened in Tehran International Fairground on Wednesday in a ceremony attended by First Vice President Parviz Davoudi, Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari and other senior oil industry officials.
The international event wrapped up on Sunday.

Head of Bushehr Aquatics Association has anticipated that about 600 hectares will come under shrimp breeding and the output will reach 870 tons in the year to March 2009, ISNA wrote.
Shrimp breeders in this southern province lack larvae, shrimp feed and capital, Eskandar Golestani complained, adding although the breeding season has started, reproductive shrimps have not been distributed among breeders to produce larvae.
Apart from accumulation of debts owed by shrimp farmers to the banking system due to the obstacles such as (shrimp diseases, storms, EU export ban, not receiving the subsidies, etc), he said, the order of Presidential Office to write off shrimp farmers’ bank lending rates and late payment fines has not been put in force and the banks turn down loan applications.
He put the total debt of Bushehr shrimp farmers reached around 500 billion rials.

On the order of the minister for labor and social affairs, a number of specialized and technical workforces will be sent overseas in teams and groups, declared the chairman of Guild Association of Job Consulting and International Offices.
In an interview with MNA, Babak Hashemipour hoped that appropriate programs will be drawn up by the Labor Ministry to achieve further success in dispatching workforce to abroad in cooperation with the Foreign Ministry.
The official added that implementing the agreements on sending workforce overseas, organizing research programs, receiving lists of job vacancies from regional countries and supporting leading job offices are among the main programs of the sector. A number of illegal job offices set up in the past two years as well as groups involved in smuggling workers out of the country hinder the realization of the objectives of the Fourth Five-Year Economic Development Plan (2005-2010).
Plan to dispatch technical and constructional laborers, physicians and flight attendants to Oman, the UAE and Azerbaijan is on the agenda of the guild association. Hashemipour noted that upgrading the knowledge of applicants is among the programs to be implemented in cooperation with Science and Technology Ministry, Technical and Vocational Training Organization and Workers’ House and Social Security Organization of Iran.

Kia, Nissan, Peugeot, and Renault auto companies have licensing agreements with Iranian counterparts.

American-led sanctions have failed to hit the oil industry or hinder foreign direct (FDI) investment in Iran.
As evidence, suffice to say that 505 international companies participated in Iran’s 13th International Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Exhibition from April 14 to 20.
According to IRNA, representatives and companies from 30 countries including, Belgium, China, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Russia, Romania, South Korea, Spain, the UAE, Poland, Holland, Qatar, Switzerland, Turkey, Bahrain, Britain, Japan, Belarus, Finland, Ukraine, India, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Greece, Canada, Australia, and even the United States attended this year’s event.
Foreign investors have concentrated their activity in several sectors of the economy: oil and gas industries, vehicle manufacture, copper mining, petrochemicals, foods, and pharmaceuticals.
Iran absorbed $24.3 billion of foreign investment from 1993 to 2007. Major foreign contracts with Iran amounted to $150 billion between 2000 and 2007 with both private and government lines of credit. Iran also has $62 billion in assets held abroad (2007).
Foreign investment hit a record $10.2 billion in the Iranian year to 2007 from $4.2 billion in 2005 and $2 million in 1994. Asian entrepreneurs led by China made the largest investments in the Islamic Republic by investing in 40 out of 80 foreign funded projects.
The largest amount of foreign investment was in the industrial sector, including food and beverage, tobacco, textiles, garments, leather, chemical, steel and oil derivates. The figure exceeded $8.76 billion.
Water, electricity and gas sector ranked second, attracting $874.83 million. In the third place, the real estate sector absorbed more than $406 million. Investments in service, telecommunication and transportation as well as mines reached $193 million, $14.3 million and $14.2 million respectively.
Asian countries invested $7.666 billion in various projects followed by several multinational consortia. Investments by these multinational companies exceeded $1.39 billion. Although European entrepreneurs were involved in 34 projects, they each invested only in the range of $1.2 billion in the Islamic Republic. Countries in the Americas also committed $12.329 million; while investments by African states registered close to $4 million.
According to the American Enterprise Institute’s estimates, “2007 was an even brighter year for investment in the Islamic Republic as Iran’s trade with Asia-Pacific nations more than doubled in the past three years, reaching about $90 billion in 2007.“
Among developed nations, the most active investors were Swiss, German, Norwegian, British, French, Japanese, Russian, South Korean, and Swedish companies.
As it stands, Kia, Nissan, Peugeot, and Renault auto companies have licensing agreements with Iranian counterparts. NestlŽ of Switzerland and Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola of the United States have joint ventures with Iranian companies.
Similarly, Total, Statoil, Shell, Gasprom, and Lucky Goldstar of South Korea have also been involved in Iran’s natural gas industry.
And last but not lest, Alcatel of France, MTN Group of South Africa and Siemens of Germany won major telecommunications contracts in 2004 and 2005, respectively.
Turning to Vision 2025, the plan has set an investment target of $3.7 trillion within two decades of which $1.3 trillion should be in the form of FDI.

Various kinds of handicrafts worth three million dollars were exported from Isfahan province in the last Iranian year which ended on March 19.
Announcing this, deputy head of Isfahan Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Department told IRNA that the handicrafts were exported to European countries, North America, Turkey, the UAE and Southeast Asia.
Ahmad Adib listed kelim, gabbeh, marquetry, embroidered work and inlaid turquoise as among the main exported handicrafts.
He added that some $12 million worth of Isfahani handicrafts were also exported from other provinces in the same period.

Power plants with the capacity of generating 5,000 megawatts from new energies are under construction in various parts of the country, announced Energy Minister Parviz Fattah.
He told MNA that constructing and developing nuclear power plants to generate cheap electricity has become a necessity.
The minister said Iran also has high potentials in solar and wind energy, saying the ministry is pursuing its target of producing electricity from these sources.
He referred to the construction of wind-operated Binaloud Power Plant with the capacity of 30 megawatts, development of Manjil wind and Shirazar power plant as among the steps taken by the ministry in this respect.
Shiraz Solar Power Plant, he said, is fully indigenized, adding that a number of wind power plants are being built by Iranian experts in the country.

Agricultural output can be increased by three-fold once the findings of agro research are applied in production, observed deputy agricultural jihad minister.
Hossein Safaei put agro production at 103 million tons in the year to March 19, predicting that with the use of scientific methods in cultivation, the figure can be increased to 300 million tons, ISNA reported.
Each cubic meter of water yields close to 800 grams of products in the agriculture sector, the official said adding that with the use of modern cultivation methods, this amount would reach two kilograms.
The outcome of only 30 percent of the research is applied in meat production, he concluded.

An oil ministry official has said that the deadline set for Royal Dutch Shell and Total to clarify their position on South Pars development project will not be extended.
Hossein Noqrekar Shirazi, deputy oil minister for international affairs, said if the partners backtrack, Iran will turn to other companies to develop the South Pars gas field as it did against Japan’s INPEX.
“We sent a good message to those who waste our time through INPEX and will replace them if they fail to meet their commitments,“ Noqrekar Shirazi said on the sidelines of the 13th International Oil, Gas and Petrochemicals Exhibition in Tehran.
According to Press TV, Total and Royal Dutch Shell authorities said they rejected any timeframe set by Tehran, but the Iranian official said the projects would be handed over to other highly qualified companies, the official said.