TEHRAN – Iranian Oil Minister Javad Oji has said investment in the petrochemical industry’s value chain has been neglected over the past two decades while such investment is very low-risk and high-yielding, the Petrochemical Industry’s News Agency (NIPNA) reported.

Speaking at the foundation-laying ceremony of a petrochemical complex in Fars Province on Friday, Oji mentioned the need for developing the country’s methanol chain as an example, saying: “In recent years, there has been very little development of the methanol chain in the country.”

“The majority of the production of the country’s methanol complexes is exported and due to the decrease in the global price of this product, many production units in this field may face losses, so we should think about the development of the complementary chain of this product,” the minister said.

The managing director of Iran’s National Petrochemical Company (NPC) has said that completing the value chain is not a motto, while it is a top agenda of the NPC’s activities, it is a program and a duty.

Referring to the rapid development of the petrochemical industry from basic products to the end of the value chain in the 13th government, Morteza Shah-Mirzaei reiterated: "Completing the value chain of the petrochemical industry is not a slogan; As an inviolable strategy, it is a task, plan and duty that my colleagues are following up with all their efforts.”

The official further put the country’s petrochemical production capacity at over 92 million tons, and said: “Today we are almost self-sufficient in the main petrochemical sectors including products and equipment.”

Iran's petrochemical industry accounts for 28 percent of the region's petrochemical capacity and 2.7 percent of the world's petrochemical capacity, the NPC head announced.

Stating that Iran's petrochemical industry exported more than 16 billion dollars of petrochemical products to the world markets last year, he added that the products supplied to the world markets are in excess of the domestic demand, because the priority of the petrochemical industry is to meet the domestic needs in order to complete the value chain.

He pointed to the development of energy diplomacy in the 13th government and said the activity program in offshore petrochemical industries is being followed seriously and good successes have been achieved in this regard. With the expansion of relations with neighboring and aligned countries, other countries have demanded the supply of catalysts, equipment and machinery from Iran.

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Photo: Iranian Oil Minister Javad Oji