Chinese Government provides buyer's credit loan for Sadaf Petrochemical Project (Linked to Record ID#41274)

📋 Staff Comments

1. The Persian project title is شرکت شيميايي صدف عسلويه or پتروشیمی صدف عسلویه.
2. The borrower institution is unknown. However, according to a BBC report, the credit line (captured via Project ID#41274) issued by China for petrochemical projects was planned to be finalized with Iran's Central Bank, so AidData has identified the Central Bank of Iran as the receiving agency (borrowing institution) for the time being. The borrowing institution may have been Sadaf Petrochemical Company (SPC or شرکت شيميايي صدف عسلويه). This issue merits further investigation.
3. The specific financier of this project is unknown. However, around the time that the project was financed, China reportedly owed Iran over $20 billion in oil payments. This funding was frozen in overseas banks after US-led sanctions made it difficult for Beijing to transfer money to Tehran. Iran and China reportedly reached a deal to settle some parts of the frozen money through China’s funding of Iranian petrochemical projects. Also, in 2017, a Vice President of China Eximbank reported that it had financed 26 electricity, petrochemical, oil and gas and nonferrous metal projects in Iran worth $9 billion. Therefore, China Eximbank is the most likely funder of this project.
4. For the time being, AidData assumes that the face value of the buyer's credit loan was equivalent to 85% of the total cost of the EPC contract (EUR 680 million).
5. Lordegan Petrochemical Company is a subsidiary of the Iranian Investment Petrochemical Group, which is a Public Limited Company that was founded in 2011 in Tehran. According to the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the Iranian Investment Petrochemical Group is owned or controlled by Iran’s largest and most profitable petrochemical holding group, Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company (PGPIC), which was sanctioned in June 2019 for providing financial support to Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters (Khatam al-Anbiya), the engineering conglomerate of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

📚 Sources & References

• چینی ها به پتروشیمی ایران هم رسیدند, جزئیات توافق ۴ میلیارد دلاری نفتی ایران – چین, ساخت ۷ پتروشیمی با پول چینی‌ها, پتروشیمی ایران فقط 6 دهم درصد از سهم بازار جهان را دارد / برنامه ریزی کلان برای 20 سال آینده
• Sadaf Chemical Company - About Us, پیشرفت پروژه (سال 97) – شرکت پتروشیمی صدف خیلج فارس, درباره ما – شرکت پتروشیمی صدف خیلج فارس, پتروشیمی صدف عسلویه - Google Search, فاینانس چینی پتروشیمی_های ایران _ اقتصاد آنلاین, مراسم کلنگ_زنی و آغاز عملیات ساخت پتروشیمی صدف-عسلویه _ خبرگزاری ایلنا, ایلنا - نسخه قابل چاپ - مراسم کلنگ_زنی و آغاز عملیات ساخت پتروشیمی صدف-عسلویه - صاحب_خبر, آزاد سازی ۵ میلیون یورو از منابع پتروشیمی صدف عسلویه
• First post-JCPOA petchem plant project - IRNA English, طرح ESBR صدف خلیج فارس پورتال شرکت ملی صنایع پتروشیمی, معرفی _گروه پتروشیمی سرمایه گذاری ایرانیان_, تأمین اعتبار 2 طرح پتروشیمی توسط چینی ها - عیارآنلاین
• China’s EXIM Inks $1.5 bn High-Speed Rail Deal with Iran
• China Finances Iran Petchem Plants
• China’s EXIM bank to fund Iran projects, مدیر شركت ملی پتروشیمی: استفاده از فاینانس چینی مشروط است مدیر شركت ملی پتروشیمی: استفاده از فاینانس چینی مشروط است
• Iran Sadaf ESBR project ready by March 2023: Company MD
• EXCLUSIVE: $1.45bn Iranian gas plant is on track to be completed in 2019
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• Treasury Sanctions Iran’s Largest Petrochemical Holding Group and Vast Network of Subsidiaries and Sales Agents Loan applications and disbursements are still being received and processed as the projects continue to evolve. Ongoing monitoring and evaluation are in place to ensure project continuity.