Italy, Germany Release Iran’s Blocked Petrochemical Equipment
Italian and German firms have began releasing blocked petrochemical equipment destined for Iran in recent months, according to Marzieh Shahdaee, director of projects at the National Petrochemical Company of Iran.
“The companies are cooperating and, so far, some blocked equipment has been handed over to Iran,” Shahdaee said, Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported.
She further noted that after the sanctions imposed upon the Islamic Republic intensified, some of the equipment purchased for petrochemical projects in Iran was seized, after which sellers refrained from delivering equipment to Tehran.
Following the recently signed nuclear agreement, the companies started releasing the detained equipment, she added, underlining that some of the recently released equipment is now in use in Iranian projects.
Regarding the freeing up of petrochemical industry equipment blocked by Siemens company, Shahdaee said the company has released a number of turbo compressors.
Last July, Mohammad Hossein Peyvandi, deputy managing director of the National Iranian Petrochemical Company said, following a meeting with Germany’s Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, Sigmar Gabriel, that Germany will free up oil equipment purchased by Iran, which has been held in Germany.
“There is a lot of our manufactured oil equipment being blocked in Germany. We have negotiated to free up the equipment as soon as possible,” Peyvandi said.
“Germany will also suffer losses, because they have not received the total payments of money. They have received 30 percent of the money, but have manufactured the equipment,” he added.
Iran and the P5+1 (US, Russia , China , France, UK , and Germany ) announced a final accord last July, after several months of talks, curbing Iran ’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of most international sanctions.
Following the signing of the agreement, Iran’s former trade partners have sent delegations to Tehran to study cooperation in the post-sanctions period.