TEHRAN- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani inaugurated three energy projects worth $2.14 billion in three provinces via video conference on Thursday, Shana reported.

Miandoab Petrochemical Plant, with the annual production capacity of 140,000 tons of heavy polyethylene, was one of the inaugurated projects.

This project, which was put into operation in the northwestern province of West Azarbaijan, plays a significant role in materializing Iran’s second petrochemical leap.

During the inauguration ceremony, of this project, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said that Iran will achieve a three-digit figure of petrochemical output for the first time in the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 2021).

The minister said that 17 projects are planned to come on stream this year which will boost the petrochemical production capacity of the country by 25 million tons.

As the managing director of Iran’s National Petrochemical Company (NPC) has recently stated, all the goals set, based on the country’s Sixth Five-year National Development Plan, for the petrochemical sector will be realized by the end of the Iranian calendar year 1400 (March 20, 2022).

Behzad Mohammadi said in mid-June that the current Iranian calendar year is a golden year for the petrochemical industry.

 Normal hexane production project inaugurated in Imam Khomeini Refinery

Rouhani also inaugurated a project for the annual production of over 190,000 liters of normal hexane in Imam Khomeini Refinery in Shazand County of the central province of Markazi, which is one of the country’s top refineries.

Iran’s annual need for the normal hexane is 30,000 tons, and as the country’s production capacity of the product has reached 50,000 tons, the export of 20,000 tons of normal hexane is now possible, which is a significant step in this year that is the year of “Surge in Production”.

In the past few years, Iranian think-tanks and energy experts have been repeatedly stating that the country should increase its refining capacity in order to lessen the economy’s reliance on crude sales. In this regard, one of the main strategies of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) in recent years has been focusing on the country’s refineries.

Goreh-Jusk oil pipeline to transfer 1m barrels of oil for exports

Goreh-Jusk oil pipeline project was the third project inaugurated on Thursday.

The pipeline will transfer one million barrels of heavy and light crude oils per day to Jask oil terminal in the southern Hormozgan Province to be exported.

Addressing the inaugural ceremony of the project, the oil minister said this project was one of the most strategic projects in the Rouhani administration.

Zanganeh said a total of $300 million has so far been invested in the project while another $800 million to $850 million is needed for its full operation.

“We hope that exports from Jusk will begin as the government's most strategic project by the end of this [calendar] year,” the minister noted.

MA/MA