Iran is considering deals worth over $165 million with 12 domestic universities and research centres to study downstream projects in the petroleum industry, said a senior official in a report.

The development of olefins and ethylene units as well as oil and gas refineries will be taken into account in the deals, Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh was quoted as saying in the Iran Daily News report, citing IRNA.

He said that Iran aims to promote technological borders of petroleum industry with the help of credited research centres in the world.

Zanganeh noted that National Petrochemical Company (NPC) is to ink a deal with a leading European firm for the construction of a propylene via methanol (PVM) unit in Iran, added the report.