page_title: Privatisation in Iran
section_title: Oil, gas and petrochemicals
hierarchical_section_title: Privatisation in Iran / Major companies listed for privatisation / Oil, gas and petrochemicals
caption_attribution_description: English: Shazand Petrochemical Arak Petrochemical
context_page_description: According to the Fourth Five-Year Economic Development Plan, the Privatisation Organisation of Iran affiliated with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance is in charge of setting prices and ceding shares to the general public and on the Tehran Stock Exchange. The privatisation effort is primarily backed by reformist members of the Iranian government and society who hope that privatisation can bring about economic and social change.
  In 2007, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei requested that government officials speed up implementation of the policies outlined in the amendment of Article 44, and move towards economic privatisation. Khamenei also suggested that ownership rights should be protected in courts set up by the Justice Ministry; the hope was that this new protection would give an additional measure of security and encourage private investment. Despite these statements, true official backing for privatisation remains very slow due to political reasons.
context_section_description: According to the Supreme Leader of Iran the downstream oil and gas sectors will be privatised, excluding the upstream oil and gas industry, the National Iranian Oil Company, the state companies involved in exploration and the production of crude oil and gas. Iran's Oil Ministry plans to cede shares of 95 percent of its affiliated companies to the private sector. Just 7 out of 142 subsidiaries of the Ministry of Petroleum have been excluded from the privatisation process.
  Some shares will be dual-listed on regional foreign stock exchanges to attract expatriate investors. A list of 21 companies to be privatized will be released by mid-2007. Of these companies, five belong to National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), nine to National Iranian Petrochemical Company (NPC), five are affiliates of National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC), and two of National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC), including the Abadan Refinery. National Iranian Gas Company, the Iranian Oil Terminals Company and the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company are also on the list. The ownership of the jetties, metering facilities and storage tanks will still remain in government hands. Iranian Oil Terminals Co., a division of the National Iranian Oil Co., has four transport hubs that load more than 2,000 oil tankers per year.
  Iran is to target foreign investment in its energy sector by creating an umbrella group of nearly 50 state-run firms and listing its shares on four international stock exchanges. Under the privatisation plan, 47 oil and gas companies (including PetroIran and North Drilling Company) worth an estimated $90 billion are to be privatised on the Tehran Stock Exchange by 2014.
  Iran's National Petrochemical Company (NPC) plans to privatise 17 companies by the end of 2007. Forty percent of those shares will go to "Justice Shares" for underprivileged citizens in Iran. 20% will be allocated to NPC. 35% will be put on sale on the Tehran Stock Exchange and the remaining 5% will go the petrochemical industry personnel. The 20 percent allocated to the NPC is meant to support petrochemical industry projects but may be offered to the private sector in the future. 89.6 percent of Shiraz Petrochemical Complex, and 27.76 percent of Petrochemical Investment Company will be sold to the public in June 2009. All shares of domestic petrochemical firms will be offered to the public in the frame of a holding company by the end of Iranian year (ending March 21, 2010). As part of the 2010 Iranian Economic Reform Plan, petrochemical companies, which use natural gas as their feedstock (rather than fuel), will pay no more than 65% of the average export price (rather than 75% for the general population) for a period of 10 years.
  Iran also projects to privatise some of its oil refineries (2009). Isfahan, Bandar Abbas, Tabriz, Shiraz, Kermanshah, Lavan, and Tehran (Shahid Tondgouyan) oil refineries will be transferred to the private sector but the ownership of Abadan and Arak (Imam Khomeini) oil refineries will remain in government control.
  The government of Iran announced in 2017 that a vast majority of the country's 3,600 gas and diesel stations along with 2,400 CNG stations would be privatized in order improve service and raise accountability. On August 8, 2017 a European firm based jointly in Greece and Romania announced it was planning to commercialize a number of stations. The deal is expected to grow economic ties between the EU and Iran.
caption: Arak (Shazand) Petrochemical company
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