TEHRAN – Head of Iran’s National Petrochemical Company (NPC) said that 27 pioneering projects aimed for the smart development of the country’s petrochemical industry are currently underway, IRNA reported.

“Seven of these projects are being implemented in the second and third leaps of the petrochemical industry, while the studies on the other 20 projects, which are in four groups of propylene, methanol, benzene and ethylene, have been completed,” Behzad Mohammadi stated.

Speaking in the inauguration ceremony of a propylene plant in Tehran, Mohammadi said: “In the way of developing this industry, we should move towards the diversification of products and try to make the country's petrochemical industry a stable and resilient industry.”

He said that of the total 49 projects defined for the second and third leap of the petrochemical industry, seven pioneering projects with a total capacity of 810,000 tons are being implemented.

Noting that five percent of the country's basic petrochemical products include propylene which is one of the main indicators of the development of the petrochemical industry in the world, he added: "This figure will not change much with the completion of the second and third leap projects, so we have defined pioneering projects in this regard.”

Mohammadi stated that the country’s petrochemical production capacity which stood at 66 million tons at the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20) has reached over 70 million tons, saying: “Last year, the marketable output of this industry was 30 million tons and its revenue was about $15 billion. Of this amount, 22 million tons worth $10 billion were exported and about eight million tons worth $5 billion were supplied domestically.”

Referring to the increasing demand for petrochemical products in the world, he said: "The demand for oil products in 2040 will increase from 100 to 125 percent, but the demand for petrochemical products will reach 240 percent."

Noting that 985,000 tons of propylene is currently produced in the country, the official said: "This figure will reach about 2 million tons by [the Iranian calendar year] 1404 (starts in March 2025), but with the implementation of pioneering projects, this figure will reach 4 million tons annually in 1405."

The petrochemical industry is playing a crucial role in Iran's non-oil economy, so that based on official data, petrochemical exports constitute the second-largest hard currency earner in Iran after crude oil. Petrochemical exports already make up nearly 33 percent of the country’s non-oil exports.

EF/MA