Iran needs 25 billion USD foreign investment in energy sector: official

An Iranian energy official said that Iran has lined up 25 billion U.S. dollars of investment in its power industry which is key to the country's economic recovery, Press TV reported on Saturday.

Iran's power industry is for an average growth of five percent in energy demands a year which requires generation of 5,000 megawatts of power annually, Arash Kordi, the head of Iran Power Transmission, Generation and Distribution Company was quoted as saying.

To this end, Iran needs to invest 7 to 8 billion U.S. dollars a year in its power generation and distribution sector, Kordi said, adding that "the package for investment by foreign companies in various sectors of electric power industry at a sum of 25 billion U.S. dollars has been prepared."

Iran's Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian said earlier that Iran's total power capacity stands at 74,000 megawatts which the country plans to raise to 100,000 megawatts in the next few years, according to Press TV.

"It is absolutely wrong to think we can achieve economic growth without having sufficient electricity production," Chitchian was quoted as saying.

Earlier this month, Iran's government spokesman Mohammad Baqer Nobakht said an agreement worth of 6 billion U.S. dollars had been signed with an unnamed European company to build 4,250 megawatts of power capacity in the country.

On Monday, Iran's Ministry of Energy signed an agreement with a German company to build 1,250 megawatts of solar energy projects. Endit