Iran’s National Petrochemical Company's (NPC) is holding talks with leading European firms to develop the country’s petrochemical sector, a top official said.

"The latest sanctions have had no impact on ongoing talks between NPC and international petrochemical giants to attract investment,” Hossein Alimorad, head of financial affairs at NPC was quoted as saying in an Iran Daily report, which cited Mehr News Agency.

He referred to the recent visit by a French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault to Tehran at the head of an economic delegation which included representatives from oil giant Total SA, and said talks were held with Total on plans to build a petrochemical complex to produce 300,000 tons of polyethylene in Parsian Special Economic Zone in south Iran.

Total's CEO Patrick Pouyanne said on Thursday the French energy major has resumed operations in Iran's South Pars Gas Field megaproject.

"The French supermajor is ready to finance Iranian oil projects and transfer technology to Tehran. We pledged that Total will introduce cutting-edge drilling and extraction technologies to slash production costs at Iran’s oil and gas fields," Pouyanne was quoted as saying in the report.

"If there is a change in the deal, worth $4.8 billion, to develop Phase 11 of the South Pars that was signed in November, we will be obliged to obey, but as of today, we are moving ahead."

Meanwhile, NPC managing director Marzieh Shahdaei said the company is in talks with Germany's BASF SE. "Negotiations are expected to lead to the signing an agreement soon," she said.

"Energy giants including Wintershall Holding GmbH, Germany's largest crude oil and natural gas producer, and BASF, have offered to invest a total of $12 billion in Iranian oil and petrochemical sectors," Shahdaei said.

Reports said that BASF has proposed to invest $6 billion in a petrochemical plant in the southern regions.

Shahdaei added that German banks have offered to finance two NPC projects and then start talks with the private sector.