IRAN - Profile - Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh.

Deputy Oil Minister and President of National Petrochemical Co. (NPC) since August 1997, Dr. 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 petroleum sector.

An efficient administration and a good engineer, Dr. Nematzadeh is presiding over a rapid expansion of the petrochemical industry. He is ambitious and eager for this sector to become the third biggest foreign exchange earner next to oil and gas. The petrochemical sector now is open to foreign capital and technology, with foreign companies becoming partners in major new plants (see DT No. 15).

Dr. 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 left 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, Dr. 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.

Dr. Nematzadeh is a nice person and eager to get the number of foreign companies involved in the petrochemical sector to increase. 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. These include huge petrochemical complexes being built at Bandar Asaluyeh, promoted by NPC's London-based external arm NPC International.

Dr. 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 Council of Constitutional Guardians, which has to approve or can veto any move by parliament.

On Aug. 23, 2000, parliament approved in principle a draft of a revised "Law for the Attraction and Protection of Foreign Investment". This is now being examined by various parliamentary committees. It is to be re-submitted to parliament, where it will then be put to a vote. But the final decision will depend on the Guardians' Council. Once this, or a revised version, is passed, the draft becomes law and will be signed by the President of the Republic. (The next presidential election is due on June 8, 2001, and President Khatami is yet to officially declare his candidacy for a second term - see Gas Market Trends).

Prominent among Dr. Nematzadeh's executives is Mohammad Hadi Rahbari, a key member of NPC's board of directors and managing director of NPC International. Another prominent figure is Mohammad Hassan Peyvandi, the director of planning and development. Peyvandi is the chairman of the Iran Petrochemical Forum, which is holding important annual conferences in Tehran. The 3rd Annual Iran Petrochemical Forum is to be held in the Iranian capital on May 5-6, 2001. These conferences are attended by a big number of petrochemical companies and have helped NPC a great deal in promoting its projects. Follow up sessions on Iran's petrochemical sector will also be included in the 15th Annual APS Conference, Middle East Strategy to the Year 2001, to be held in Tehran on Sept. 22-24, 2001. (For bookings, apply to APS Conference, APS House, P.O. Box 23896, Nicosia, Cyprus, email: [e-mail] - www.aps-energygroup.com)

Hamdollah Mohammad-Nejad: Deputy Oil Minister and Managing Director of National Iranian Gas Co. (NIGC) Mohammad-Nejad's sector is growing rapidly with gas production to rise from 170 MCM/day in 2000 to 500 MCM/y by 2005. NIGC is in charge of all gas-related operations, including gas imports and exports. He has recently confirmed that gas exports to Turkey will begin as scheduled in July 2001, with the Iranian section of the pipeline from Tabriz already completed.

Mohammad-Nejad took up this position in 1996, replacing Assadollah Salehi-Foroz. Mohammed-Nejad is also responsible for the domestic gas market, with NIGC acting as a huge utility through 20 regional distribution units which are to expand the national pipeline network, and for gas reinjection which is crucial to the life of many oilfields.

In January 1997, Mohammed-Nejad announced a plan to build two underground facilities to store 1 BCM of gas at a cost of $700m. One storage site has been located 50 km south-east of Tehran and another at Qom, 120 km south of Tehran. In late 1998, he said the 20 regional gas distribution units - like Isfahan Gas, Fars Gas, Mashhad Gas, etc. - were to be under NIGC's "partial control" for two to three years and later should become fully independent. NIGC's gas processing plants are also to become independent.

NIGC executives under Mohammed-Nejad include Saeed Ghavampour, in charge of corporate planning; Mansour Daftarian, a director in charge of the upstream; and Reza Rostami Sani, director of international affairs. At a gas conference on Kish island on Feb. 16-17, 1997, Sani outlined plans to export 41.5 BCM/year of gas by 2005. He said to achieve this "foreign participation is definitely required". He also said long-term plans included facilities for export of gas in LNG form.