Speaking to India's The Telegraph daily, an unnamed IOC official admitted that the deal for Haldia is more or less buried and that Bengal's loss may be Iran's gain. Apparently, a team of senior IOC officials will head off to the Middle Eastern country to do a feasibility study on setting up a giant petrochemicals plant in Iran with Iran's National Petrochemicals Company.
Such a move is apparently made more feasible by the fact that Iran's abundant supply of natural gas, which can be used as a feedstock, will be of great benefit to a JV plant there.
If a move to Iran goes according to plan, the Haldia Petro plan will be called off despite the fact that lenders have hammered out a corporate debt restructuring package and the fact that Gail has come onboard as a promoter of the project.
