TEHRAN – Director of the National Petrochemical Company (NPC)’s Market Research Department said the company has issued establishment licenses for 20 new pioneering petrochemical projects across the country, Shana reported on Sunday.

According to Masoud Sayehban, NPC has defined 33 pioneering projects of which 20 have gotten the necessary licenses to be implemented by the country’s private sector.

As reported, some of the mentioned projects are going to be implemented as part of the third leap of the country’s petrochemical industry.

The petrochemical industry’s pioneering plans have been defined with the strategy of completing and developing the industry’s value chain and with the aim of compensating for the shortage of feeds required by the complementary industries, Sayehban explained.

They are also aimed at diversifying the country’s export basket and product portfolio while creating added value and employment, he said.

“With the implementation of the mentioned projects in the main chains of propylene, methanol, ethylene, benzene, urea, and butadiene, 20 new types of petrochemical products will be produced, which will reduce about 70 percent of imports of petrochemical products and also bring the country more revenues from exports,” he said.

The official pointed to the completion of methanol chain as one of the NPC’s major strategies for the development of the petrochemical industry and added: "Currently, the country's annual methanol capacity is 12 million tons and with the launch of new methanol projects by [the Iranian calendar year] 1404 (2025), the capacity will reach 23 million tons."

Back in September, NPC Managing Director Behzad Mohammadi said the strategy of this company is to complete the value chain and diversify the portfolio of valuable products.

Petrochemical is Iran's most important industry after oil and gas. The National Petrochemical Company hopes to lift output capacity to 120 million tons per annum by 2022.

The industry has played a key role in domestic economic growth as it creates value-added and reduces the sale of oil and gas on which the economy has been dependent for decades.

With abundant hydrocarbon reserves and new private sector investments, Iran is working hard to maintain its global status in this key sector and broaden its scope.

As recently announced by NPC's Director of Planning and Development Hassan Abbaszadeh, Iran's share in West Asia’s petrochemical trade has increased by two percent.

Abbaszadeh said the country’s share of petrochemical trade in the region was 20.2 percent in the Iranian calendar year 1398 (ended in March 2020) and it reached 22.1 percent at the end of the previous fiscal year (March 2021), indicating a two percent growth.

EF/MA