TEHRAN- Seven new petrochemical projects are planned to be implemented in the country by the end of current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2018), Shana quoted Ali-Mohammad Bosaqzadeh, the production control director of National Petrochemical Company (NPC), as saying.

NPC Managing Director Marziyeh Shahdaie had previously said that 30 petrochemical projects will be put into operation in the country by the end of the next calendar year (March 20, 2019).

She said that these projects will add 20 million tons to Iran’s annual output.

Petrochemical output is expected to exceed 59 million tons in the current year which will be an 18 percent increase year on year, according to the NPC managing director.

As she said, Iran exported about 19 million tons of petrochemical products, worth near $10 billion, in the previous calendar year and NPC plans to export 23 million tons of petrochemicals, worth $11 billion, this year.

The country plans to boost its petrochemical output to 120 million tons per annum by the end of its outlook plan for the calendar year of 1404 (March 2026) and $70 billion of investment is required to meet this objective.

Iran is among the few countries which have all kinds of petrochemical feedstock, according to Shahdaie.

The future of Iranian petrochemical industry is promising after the implementation of JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action which lifted sanction against Iran in January 2016), Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said in the 13th edition of Iran Petrochemical Forum (IPF), which was held in Tehran on April 22.

Given that Iran ranks the first and fourth in the world in terms of gas and oil reserves, respectively, no country enjoys feedstock as much as Iran to develop its petrochemical industry, Zanganeh highlighted.

MA/MG