High Petrochem Water Use Refuted

There are 67 petrochemical companies in Iran, which account for less than 0.5% of total annual water consumption. 
Refuting the general belief that petrochem industry is water-intensive, the Energy Today’s website and based on information from the National Petrochemical Company, Iran's annual water consumption (extracted from ground and surface resources) tops 100 billion cubic meters, of which only 70 million cubic meters are used in the petrochemical sector annually, which is negligible compared to the agro sector that gobbles up 90 bcm of water per year.
Most petrochemical plants in Iran are located in Asalouyeh, Khuzestan Province, and Mahshahr, Bushehr Province, and due to their proximity to the Persian Gulf and Karoun River, they do not need to tap into depleting ground resources in the dry regions.
Petrochemical plants in Asalouyeh and Mahshahr consume about 350 mcm of water per annum, of which 280 mcm come from the Persian Gulf and the rest (70 mcm/y) is extracted from deep wells.
Drawing a parallel, NPC noted that the company’s annual water extraction from renewable water resources equals the amount of water used in Tehran on 14 days.
Household sector and industries account for 7% and 3% of total water consumption respectively.
According to Behzad Mohammadi, the head of NPC, revenues generated by selling petrochemical products in domestic and international markets are predicted to reach $21.5 billion by the end of the current fiscal year (March 2021-22).
“Close to 43 million tons of petrochemical commodities are expected to be produced in 67 petrochemical companies, of which 33 million tons will be exported,” he said. 
“Exports of 27 million tons of products earned $10 billion in 2019. About 8 million tons of petrochemicals worth $5 billion were sold in the domestic market last year.”