Addressing a meeting with senior petrochemical managers in Tehran on Wednesday, Abbas Shari-Moqaddam called on his audience to close ranks to optimize energy consumption of the country.
He said power plants, by boosting their efficiency, can play an important role in curbing high energy consumption in Iran.
"For the time being, power plants in Iran are only 40% efficient while the figure crosses 90% in industrial countries," he said.
Currently, there are 67 semi-finished projects underway that their completion would raise the annual production of petrochemicals to 120 million tons in Iran.
The country plans to boost annual petrochemical production capacity to 180 million tons from around 60 million tons currently.
Once the semi-finished petrochemical projects are completed and a number of planned petrochemical units come on stream, the country’s petrochemical output will be increased to 180 million tons per year.