Addressing a televised interview
on Wednesday evening, Mr. Zangeneh said the country’s petrochemical revenues
were hardly $1 billion until 1997. But the amount reached $11 billion in 2013
and was expected to cross $25b by 2021 and $37b by 2025.
Iran has defined dozens of major petrochemical
projects which have been dubbed as the second and third leaps of the industry.
The projects are expected to come
to fruition by 2021 (second leap) and 2025 (the third leap).
Zangeneh said Iran would have long
buckled under the pressure of the sanctions had it not been because of the petrochemical
industry and its hard currency generation.