TEHRAN - Managing Director of Iran’s Mahshahr Petrochemical Special Economic Zone (PETZONE) said 29 development projects are underway in this zone to complete the petrochemical industry’s value chain and also reduce the exports of raw materials.

According to Omid Shahidi-Nia, four of the mentioned projects will go operational in upstream and midstream sectors, while the other 25 are related to the downstream industries, Shana reported.

The official noted that continuous development of the region is always considered a top priority for PETZONE, adding: “the development of complementary industries can diversify the products portfolio of the petrochemical industry.”

Mahshahr Petrochemical Special Economic Zone in Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan Province is one of the major petrochemical zones of the country.

Last July, the managing director of Iran’s National Petrochemical Company (NPC) unveiled a plan for the construction of a new petrochemical hub in Mahshahr Petrochemical Special Economic Zone in order to add up to six million tons (mt) of new capacity to the zone.

Speaking in the annual general assembly of the Petrochemical Special Economic Zone at that time, Behzad Mohammadi noted that NPC is seeking two main goals in Mahshahr zone, one of which is maintaining the current output levels and the other, which is more important and of higher priority, is the development of the zone and attracting and facilitating investment.

“In Mahshahr's grand scheme, development of downstream and midstream industries is given great importance,” he said adding that the zone’s development plan is going through revision and preparation.

The petrochemical industry plays a crucial role in Iran’s non-oil economy, as the petrochemical export is the second-largest source of revenue for the country after crude oil. Petrochemical exports already constitute nearly 33 percent of the country’s non-oil exports.

Iran has been highly developing this sector over the recent years as the development of the giant South Pars gas field (Iran shares with Qatar in the Persian Gulf) has been supplying more feedstock to the petrochemical units.

Also, the U.S. sanctioning Iran’s oil exports has encouraged more development of the petrochemical industry to boost exports from this sector.

EF/MA