Iran is expected to fetch $14 billion in revenues from petrochemical exports in the current fiscal (started March 21), the head of National Petrochemical Company said on Wednesday.
"Upon the completion of petrochemical complexes, namely Marjan in Asalouyeh, the first phase of Bushehr Petrochemical Complex and Kaveh Methanol Company in Bushehr Province, the country's petrochem output will surpass 63 million tons," Seyyed Reza Norouz-Zadeh was also quoted as saying by Shana.
According to the official, it is estimated that of the total manufactured commodities, 47 million tons worth $24.5 billion will be sold, of which 27 million tons worth $27 billion will be exported to international markets.
Pointing to ongoing ventures, Norouz-Zadeh said, "Some 60 mega projects, at an estimated cost of $42.5 billion, are under construction across the country whose nominal annual output stands at 65.4 million tons."
"Providing the ventures with their much-needed financial resources is a top priority," he said, adding that NPC is taking advantage of all its potentials to help ease the funding process.
Tehran earned $9.55 billion in revenues from petrochemical exports last year, official data show. Petrochemical consignments went mostly to Asia, Europe and South America.
Iran holds some of the world's largest crude oil and natural gas reserves, but its petrochemical industry is comparatively underdeveloped.
Tehran says its new petrochemical ventures require over $70 billion in investments that should mostly come from foreign sources, such as France's Total and Royal Dutch Shell that are reportedly close to sealing billions of dollars worth of licensing and construction deals in the Iranian petrochemical market.
Petrochemical is Iran's most important industry after oil and gas. NPC hopes to lift nominal output capacity to 120 million tons per annum by 2022, the end of Iran's Sixth Five-Year Economic Development Plan.
