Head of the Association of Petrochemical Industry Corporation (APIC) said that in future two factors, water supply and ease of exports will have to be taken into account when planning new petrochemical units, ILNA reported.
"Petrochemical complexes require a lot of water and should be built in locations where water supply is not a limiting factor," Ahmad Mahdavi said, adding: "Past noncompliance by several petrochemical units to this basic rule has now created problems."
Since large amounts of petrochemical products are not consumed domestically, ease of export is another issue to be taken into consideration when choosing sites for petrochemical units. The best locations are those with proximity to Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, where there will be no problem with regard to water supply and the port terminals.
"We had to build units which produce domestically-required products such as urea in central parts of the country, with the water to be supplied from dams," Mahdavi said, noting that determining locations for petrochemical complexes is the purview of the National Petroleum Company (NPC).
Mahdavi had said earlier in October that Iran does not have excess capacity for petrochemical export to European markets, and currently exports petrochemicals to European countries on a limited level.
