Iran has issued contracts worth US$2.6 billion to Khatam Al-Anbia, a company controlled by the Revolutionary Guards.
Khatam Al-Anbia will build two pipelines totaling 1,100 km in length that will carry oil from the southeastern Khuzestan province to a refinery in Rey, south of the capital Tehran, under a contract with a state oil company worth US$1.3 billion, Mehr reported.
"These oil projects have been ceded to the Khatam al-Anbia Construction Headquarters by forgoing tender formalities," said Ali-Reza Zeighami, the head of the state-owned National Iranian Refining and Distribution Company.
Khatam al-Anbia will sign another US$1.3 billion contract with the National Iranian Gas Company soon to build a segment of pipeline to northwestern Iran that Tehran hopes could eventually take Iranian gas to markets in Western Europe, Mehr said.
The contracts are the latest sign of the growing clout of the Revolutionary Guards Corp in the Iranian economy at a time when international sanctions have meant many foreign companies have been unable or unwilling to compete for tenders.
