Iranian officials say India has voiced interest to invest in the Iranian petrochemical sector. �

Mohammad-Hassan Peyvandi, the deputy managing director of Iran's National Petrochemical Company (NPC), has told reporters the Indian companies have raised a proposal to the same effect during a recent visit by a major trade delegation from New Delhi to Tehran.

�Instead of importing natural gas and turning it into urea, the Indian companies want to establish a plant in Iran and produce the urea here and then ship it to India,� Peyvandi has been quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency.

What could further make this attractive, he added, is the fact that Iran�s southern shores - from where India plans to ship the produced urea - are close to India.

Nevertheless, Peyvandi said the Indian companies have proposed to buy Iran�s gas for their proposed project � which is estimated to have an annual production capacity of at least 7 million tons � at �a very cheap rate�.

�The rate of the gas that the Indians want to use as feedstock for their proposed project is 2 cents [for each cubic meter of natural gas],� he said, adding that approving or disapproving the rate is a decision that needs to be taken by high-level officials of the Iranian government.

By Press TV