A senior Iranian energy advisor said Tehran and Seoul have reached an agreement on dam construction in southern Iran.
Mohammadreza Rezazadeh, an advisor to Iran's energy minister, said, "Iran and South Korea have reached a $1.7-billion agreement on the construction of Bakhtiari dam in southern Iran."
Noting that the construction of Bakhtiari dam formed one of the agreed plans with South Korea, he added that a finance deal worth $1.7 billion was inked with Seoul on Bakhtiari dam and the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) and South Korean banks are in the final stages of coordination to finalize the project.
In a relevant development in early January, Managing Director of Iran's Industrial Development and Renovation Organization Mansour Moazami said that IDRO and South Korea's Daewoo Company were planning to establish a joint shipbuilding factory.
"We need $37 billion for the construction of the required vessels in the country by 2025," Moazami said.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Line (IRISL) and National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) will also partner in joint shipbuilding company," Moazami added.
Daewoo Company will also work to develop a shipyard and related facilities in Iran.
Jung Sung-leep as the CEO of Daewoo's Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Company signed the document with Moazami.
The Iranian side wants South Korea to finance the project and urgently seeks to have relevant technology and operational know-how to be transferred to Iranian shipbuilding companies.
Daewoo Shipbuilding said the deal will help it make inroads into Iran's shipbuilding market, and export related equipment.
Since 1983, Daewoo Shipbuilding has secured a set of combined orders worth $1.65 billion to build 38 ships for Iran's state-run shipping firms, such as National Iranian Tanker Co.
Oil projects
As the global construction industry is facing the most difficult times ever, domestic construction companies have won 6 trillion won ($5.3 billion) of deals in Iran with the removal of economic sanctions.
Daelim Industrial co. obtained a 2.3-trillion-won ($2 billion) deal to improve oil refinery facilities at the end of December last year and signed a formal contract on Sunday.
Hyundai Engineering Co. also clinched a 3.8-trillion-won ($3.31 billion) project to build a petrochemical producing facility, and signed a formal agreement in Iran on the same day — the biggest such contract signed with a Middle East country.
Hyundai Engineering announced on Monday that it signed the formal agreement worth 3.8 trillion won ($3.31 billion) with Ahdaf, a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), in Tehran for the second phase of Phase 12 of South Pars Gas Field project, along with Hyundai Engineering and Construction (Hyundai E&C).
Based on the deal worth €3.1 billion ($3.3 billion), Hyundai Engineering (3.2 trillion won or $2.79 billion) will form a consortium with Hyundai E&C (600 billion won or $522.88 million) to build a facility to produce 1 million tons of ethylene, 500,000 tons of monoethylene glycol, 350,000 tons of high-density polyethylene and 350,000 tons of low-density polyethylene per year in the world's largest gas field South Pars in Tonbak, about 1,100 kilometer south of Tehran.
The construction is expected to take 48 months to complete.
Hyundai Engineering had made thorough preparations for two years after Ahdaf, which acknowledged the company's competitiveness in petrochemical plants, first offered to take part in the project in 2015 before economic sanctions on Iran were lifted.
The company received a letter of award (LOA) from Ahdaf in December last year seven months after signing the basic agreement in May, and succeeded in signing the formal contract three months later.
Hyundai Engineering said that 85 percent of fund for the engineering, procurement, construction and financing (EPCF) contract in which support construction costs first and get money back with interest later would be supported by South Korean lenders such as the Export-Import Bank of Korea and Korea Trade Insurance Corp.
Daelim Industrial received a LOA from Iran's Esfahan Oil Refining Co. (EORC) to improve oil refinery facilities at the end of December last year, and signed the formal contract on Sunday in Iran.
Daelim Industrial solely obtained the 2.23-trillion-won ($1.95 billion) deal. The project is to add facilities to the oil refinery in Isfahan, located 400 kilometers south of Tehran.
Iran is rich in natural resources with the world's largest natural gas reserves and fourth largest oil reserves.
