IRAN - Profile - Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh.

Deputy Oil Minister and President of National Petrochemical Co. (NPC) since August 1997, Namatzadeh is prominent among the moderates in the Khatami administration. He and Oil Minister Zanganeh have had a long friendship, with Nematzadeh having headed the state's Power and Transmission Company Tavanir in the late 1980s - Tavanir being under the energy ministry. Now he is also a member of the Supreme Economic Council (SEC), the top decision maker for the hydrocarbon sector.

Nematzadeh is an Azeri. He was born in Tabriz (eastern Azerbaijan province) in 1945. He got a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Tabriz University, a master's degree in industrial management from Tehran University and a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley. He withdrew from theological studies in 1977 and joined the Khomeini movement. After the revolution he became in charge of an inspection committee at the labour and social affairs ministry; director of the Iran National Company; labour minister after the fall of Bazargan's government in late 1979; industry and mines minister from September 1980 to August 1981; CEO of Tavanir from February to August 1989; and industry minister from August 1989 until late 1995.

In the latter position, Nematzadeh was in charge of both light and heavy industries which were merged in September 1994. In that position he began a drive to privatise both light and heavy industries that were under his ministry. He said in early 1995 that by 2000 state ownership of industry would have been reduced to 10%. But this seems to be a long way off.

Nematzadeh is a nice person and eager to get foreign companies involved in the petrochemical sector. In 1998 NPC hired UK-based Kleinwort Benson - whose Iranian research director Mehdi Varzi has maintained links with Tehran - to act as financial advisor for a long list of projects being offered for foreign companies to launch in Iran (see DT 15). These include a new petrochemical complex at Bandar Asaluyeh, promoted by NPC's London-based external arm NPC International whose CEO is Esfandiar Karimzadegan. Nematzadeh has promised foreign companies that Iran's investment laws will be amended and that the government would offer guarantees against state seizure. But there is a limit to what he can offer, in view of restrictions usually imposed by the Majlis (parliament).

Ahmad Rahgozar was appointed in early May 1997 as head of the London office of NIOC's equipment procurement arm Kala. He used to be president of NPC, a position he held from 1988 and as such he oversaw a rapid expansion of the petrochemical sector, with the capacity rising from just 500,000 t/y in 1988 to about 13m t/y at present. He is also a board member of NPC's London-based unit, European National Petrochemical Co. (ENPC). Kala Naft accounts for more than $1 bn of NIOC purchases. It has purchasing offices in in Sharjah, Hamburg, Calgary, Beijing and Moscow. In 1993 Rahgozar came under strong criticism in the Majlis, with its oil committee member Mohsen Yahyavi saying he had tried to cover up and mislead the parliament when the committee objected to a contract signed with a Norwegian firm. Yahyavi said Rahgozar had

accepted a contract which ignored Iran's interests. Then oil minister Aghazadeh had to acknowledge that the contract had to be changed. After that, attempts by Rahgozar to get partnership deals with foreign firms were blocked by the Majlis.