TEHRAN – Head of Iran’s National Petrochemical Company (NPC) has said that the inauguration of 17 new projects in the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 20, 2021) is going to increase the revenues of this sector by 80 percent, Shana reported.

According to Behzad Mohammadi, the petrochemical sector is currently the country’s leading industry and the top source of revenues, which is constantly growing and excelling.

The deputy oil minister said that the Oil Ministry and NPC are taking necessary measures to improve the petrochemical industry’s output, both in terms of quality and quantity.

“By increasing the production capacity of high-quality products such as propylene and, by identifying market needs, petrochemical incomes will be guaranteed,” he noted.

The official emphasized that the global market for petrochemical products is constantly evolving, so most of the plans and programs in this industry should be short or mid-term plans.

“Unfortunately, for long, we have been over-focusing on some sectors of the industry while completely neglecting other areas and this is not a good thing.”

“In the development of the industry, we moved from resources to development and did not pay attention to the market needs,” he regretted.

Mentioning propylene as an example for the neglected sectors of the industry, Mohammadi said: “By completing the propylene chain, we are trying to create some balance in the industry.”

Only five percent of Iran's petrochemical production portfolio is related to propylene, while this number is 17 percent in Saudi Arabia, 18 percent in the United States, and 16 percent in the world, he noted.

With the implementation of new projects, the share of this product in Iran’s petrochemical portfolio will reach 10 percent in the Iranian calendar year 1404 (starts in March 2025).

The official finally underlined the need for the development of the oil and gas industry as the mother industries for the petrochemical sector and said the development of the petrochemical industry is interlinked with the development of oil and gas industries because it receives its feedstock from upstream industries, so the lower the oil production, the lower the petrochemical output will be.

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 total revenue of the country's petrochemical industry in the previous [Iranian calendar] year was $15 billion, of which about 85 percent was returned to the country’s domestic Forex Management Integrated System (locally known as NIMA).

Earlier in June, Mohammadi had said that 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).

EF/MA