Petchem production up 8% in 7 months yr/yr

Petrochemical units are producing with a good capacity and despite some external problems, the process of production and sale of various petrochemical products is in an acceptable condition,” said Jalal Mirhashemi, NPC's production control manager.

The petrochemical industry is playing a crucial role in Iran's non-oil economy, so that based on official data, petrochemical exports constitute the second-largest hard currency earner in Iran after crude oil. Petrochemical exports already make up nearly 33 percent of the country’s non-oil exports.

Iran has been highly developing this sector over the recent years as the development of the giant South Pars gas field (Iran shares with Qatar in the Persian Gulf) has been supplying more feedstock to the petrochemical units; the country is currently producing nearly 70 million tons of petrochemical products annually.

According to the Head of Iran’s National Petrochemical Company Behzad Mohammadi, Iran is going to become the top petrochemical producer in the region after the realization of the industry’s third leap in the Iranian calendar year 1404 (starts on March 21, 2025).

“Iran’s petrochemical industry will be accounting for 6.2 percent of the total global petrochemical output by the year 1404,” Mohammadi said in November 2019.

Meanwhile, the country’s petrochemical products basket is also going to be more diversified by the mentioned year.

Back in September, Mohammadi had said that major development plans were underway for diversifying the country’s petrochemical output considering the wide range of feedstock available.

“The macro development planning that the company is currently making for the petrochemical industry is beyond the second and third leaps of the industry, and we expect the company’s projects directorate to follow up and help achieve these plans,” he said.

In addition to the projects in the second and third leaps of the petrochemical industry, 34 new projects with an investment volume of $17 billion, and a total capacity of 19 million tons have been defined, with their implementation, Iran's position will be more privileged, Mohammadi said.

There are currently 56 active petrochemical complexes across the country which receive 33 million tons of feedstock annually (equivalent to 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day).

The number of the petrochemical complexes is planned to reach 83 by [the Iranian calendar year of] 1400 (starts in March 2021), and their feedstock consumption is expected to increase to 62 million tons (equivalent to 1.4 million bpd).

Also according to the Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, the country’s annual petrochemical output is planned to reach more than 100 million tons by the Iranian calendar year of 1400 and to 130 million tons or nearly doubled by 1404.