A Chinese company has been given a license to construct an oil refinery in the northern Iranian province of Mazandaran.

Moussa Ghasem Pisheh, the deputy head of the center for attracting foreign investments into Mazandaran,  was quoted as saying on Monday that if the project goes ahead as planned, it will be a huge boost to foreign investments in Mazandaran province.  "We are following up on this, and we very much hope that the Chinese do build an  oil refinery here".  

Ghasem Pisheh added: "Last year we attracted a total of $ 90 million worth of foreign investments in Mazandaran, where a 100-Mega-watt electricity-generating power plant was constructed,  as well as an electrolysis water-production unit, and in various Greenhouse vegetable farming projects.

In further comments , the deputy head of the center for attracting foreign investments into Mazandaran, reiterated that  German, Austrian and Chinese contractors have  been chosen to build  three electricity-generating power plants ,  attracting 37 million dollars worth of foreign investments in total,  and that work on this had already started.

Ghasem Pisheh added: "Compared to 2016,  we actually saw a ten percent increase in foreign investments in Mazandaran in 2017".