Oman Oil, LG Int'l & Iran's NPC Will Have EDC Plant At Sohar Industrial Zone.

The state-owned Oman Oil Co. (OOC) on Nov. 7 signed a $300m shareholders agreement with LG International of South Korea and the Iranian state-owned National Petrochemical Co. (NPC) for an ethylene dichloride (EDC) plant to be built at Sohar port's industrial zone. Oman's powerful Minister of Commerce and Industry and chairman of OOC, Maqbool Bin Ali Sultan, signed the agreement for the Omani side and said: "OOC will own a 33.4% stake in the venture while LG International and NPC each will acquire a share of 33.3%". Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh, undersecretary in the Iranian Petroleum Ministry and president of NPC, signed for the Iranian side and David Kang, LGI executive vice-president, signed for his company.

The Omani minister said 30% of the project cost will be in the form of equity capital and 70% will be financed from loans to be obtained from local and international banks. He said financial closure will be concluded in the last quarter of 2005 and implementation will commence in the first quarter of 2006. Commercial operations will begin in the second quarter of 2008. He said such a project "is a clear indication of additional investment projects being implemented by His Majesty's government, which encourages foreign investors to enter into joint ventures aimed at diversifying and developing the Omani economy". Nematzadeh said the agreement was a step in the direction of NPC's declared policy of regional co-operation in the petrochemical sector.