Once the required financial resources for completion of 60 unfinished projects remaining from the previous administrations and implementation of 36 new methane-fed projects are provided, Iran’s annual petrochemical production capacity will soar past 180 million tons making Iran the top petrochemical producer in the Middle East, said Mohammad Hassan Peyvandi.
He said the National Petrochemical Company (NPC) has earned considerable amounts in recent years and even if the sanctions remain in place, the company will be able to pursue its initiatives with the capitals it has at hand.
He further said Iranian banks have repeatedly voiced their readiness to support petrochemical projects financially.
He said Iran will reach 120 mt/y petrochemical output by 2019, adding that production capacity of methanol will reach 24 million tons a year from the current 5 mt/y within the next four years.
At present, Iran enjoys a 60-million-ton petrochemical production capacity, and due to a variety of reasons including feedstock shortage, only 68 percent of this capacity is used.
Recently, head of the NPC Abbas Shari-Moqaddam said Iran will see its petrochemical production rise by two million tons a year by March 2015.
He said that four petrochemical hubs are to be established in Parsian Special Economic Zone in the east of Assaluyeh off Persian Gulf waters, Jask Free Zone off the Sea of Oman, Chabahar Free Zone and Iranshahr Special Zone in southeastern Iran.
Iran is determined to become the biggest petrochemical producer in the Middle East.
The country has significantly expanded the range and volume of its petrochemical production over the past few years, and the NPC has become the second largest producer and exporter of petrochemicals in the Middle East after Saudi Arabia.