Separately, the oil refining company said a foreign company has signed a contract to invest $13 billion in three Iranian oil refineries—but it didn’t name the foreign company or the country from which it came.
The regime is quick to issue good news reports, but is so short on details as to cast doubt on many of its announcements.
Oil Minister Masud Mir-Kazemi announced a few months ago that Iran would invest $150 billion over the next five years in its upstream oil operations (which just happens to correspond to $30 billion a year) plus $60 billion in downstream operations.
No one has said how much Iran would get from foreign investors, but officials have indicated they are not expecting much foreign investment any more and are planning to generate most capital domestically.
So the announcement from Ali-Reza Zeighami, managing director of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC), that a mystery foreign firm will plunk down $13 billion came as a surprise.
Zeighami said the mystery firm would invest in the Abadan and Esfahan refineries, which are being expanded, and an unnamed private sector refinery. If true, that will be major boost to Iranian efforts to make Iran an exporter of gasoline.
