Iran will find a way to circumvent US sanctions and develop the petrochemical industry under those limitations, the managing director of the National Petrochemical Company said.
“We have the experience of the previous round of sanctions to mitigate the damaging effects,” Seyyed Reza Norouz-Zadeh was also quoted as saying by Shana, the Oil Ministry’s official news agency, on Saturday.
Ali Mohammad Bosaqzadeh, NPC's deputy for production control, also said that notwithstanding the tighter US constraints reimposed on May 8 by US President Donald Trump compared to the previous round of sanctions that were removed more than two years ago, the European Union, Russia, China and the United Nations are on the Iranian side over the issue.
“With regard to Iran’s petrochemical advantages, such as abundant resources of natural gas as feedstock and domestic production that has significantly progressed in the past years, the industry will not face serious problems,” he said.
According to the report, Iran’s petrochemical production has increased from 40.6 million tons per annum five years ago to about 54 million tons in the fiscal 2017-18.
In the same period, petrochemical exports met a 75% rise from 12.8 million tons to 22.4 million tons.
Based on NPC's reports, the country’s total petrochemical exports in the last fiscal valued at $12.01 billion, up 25% compared to the previous fiscal’s revenues that amounted to $9.54 billion. On the other hand, with the launch of new phases of the giant South Pars Gas Field in the Persian Gulf, the petrochemical complexes’ ethane consumption reached 4.7 million tons in the past fiscal from over 2.6 million tons in the fiscal 2013-14.
Five petrochemical plans, namely Phase 2 of Kavian Petrochemical Complex, Phase 2 of Morvarid Petrochemical Company, Phase 2 of Pardis Petrochemical Company as well as Takht-e Jamshid and Entekhab petrochemical complexes, went on stream in the last fiscal.
A total of $1.5 billion in investment was spent to launch the plans, which are expected to make $2.5 billion in revenues per year. The NPC aims to launch 52 new petrochemical plans to become the biggest petrochemical producer of the region by 2026.
