Iran’s petchem output to rise by 14.2%: NPC
Iran has plans to increase its total annual production of petrochemicals by some 14.2% in the calendar year to late March, according to a senior official in the state-run National Petrochemical Company (NPC).
NPC’s head of planning and development Hassan Abbaszadeh said that annual output of petrochemicals in Iran is expected to reach 80 million metric tons (mt), up from 70 million mt reported for the year to late March this year, Press TV reported.
Abbaszadeh said total production capacity in the Iranian petrochemical industry is around 93 million mt per year, adding that feedstock supplied to plants across the country is around 47.5 million mt of which some 70% is natural gas.
The NPC official said Iran sold some 40 million mt of petrochemical products worth $27 billion in the year to late March of which some 28 million mt were exported to other countries, generating $16 billion in hard currency revenues for the country.
He said a bulk of development plans introduced for the Iranian petrochemical sector would focus on increased output of six basic products, including ethylene and propylene.
He said current output capacity of basic petrochemicals in Iran is around 58 million mt, making the country the second largest supplier of those products in the region after Saudi Arabia.