TEHRAN - Managing Director of Iran’s Mahshahr Petrochemical Special Economic Zone (PETZONE) said the output of this zone is expected to reach 19 million tons by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20).

According to Omid Shahidi-Nia, so far over one billion dollars have been invested to develop the infrastructure in the mentioned zone, Shana reported.

The official noted that continuous development of the region is always considered a top priority for PETZONE, adding: “Our most important task in this region is to provide the ground for energy investment and management.”

PETZONE currently accounts for 26 million tons of the country's current 90-million-ton petrochemical capacity, according to Shahidi-Nia.

He pointed to the diversity of the petrochemicals produced in the Mahshahr region and said: "Currently, several new projects worth over seven billion dollars are underway in this region, which will create more than 4,800 new jobs."

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

Back in September 2020, Shahidi-Nia had said that 29 development projects were underway in this zone to complete the petrochemical industry’s value chain and also reduce the exports of raw materials.

According to the official, four of the mentioned projects went operational in upstream and midstream sectors, while the other 25 were related to the downstream industries.

In July 2019, the former managing director of Iran’s National Petrochemical Company (NPC) had 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 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 was seeking two main goals in the Mahshahr zone, one of which was maintaining the current output levels and the other was 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 was 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.

The Islamic Republic 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.

EF/MA