Iran Petrochem Revenue Averages $20 Billion Per Year

Iran's annual petrochemical revenue has averaged $20 billion in the last five years, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said.

“To increase non-oil exports, we should raise petrochemical investments and avoid selling raw materials,” IRNA quoted Zanganeh as saying, adding that the country is in need of foreign finance and know-how to materialize its development plans.

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.

Speaking in Yasuj, the provincial capital of Kohgilouyeh-Boyerahmad, the oil minister noted that while the province has a 1% share in Iran’s population, plans call for an investment of $5-6 billion in the region’s petrochemical and oil-related industries, which cannot be provided without the help of foreign finance.

He added that five petrochemical plants are currently under construction in Kohgilouyeh-Boyerahmad and the Oil Ministry has issued the permit to carry out feasibility studies for another named Boyerahmad Petrochemical Plan.

“Gachsaran and Dehdasht petrochemical plans are being implemented each with an investment of over $1 billion, the physical progress of the former being 50%,” he said.  

Zanganeh said the ministry has spent 2.5 trillion rials (about $55 million) to provide infrastructure in the province’s different sectors.

Tehran said its new petrochemical ventures require over $70 billion in investments that should mostly come from foreign sources.

Petrochemical is Iran's most important industry after oil and gas. NPC hopes to lift nominal output capacity to more than 120 million tons per annum by 2022, the last year of Iran's Sixth Five-Year Economic Development Plan.

$10-Billion Investment

The country needs investment worth $10 billion to renovate the petroleum industry’s dilapidated equipment, the oil minister said in the province’s oil- and gas-rich city of Gachsaran on Thursday, ISNA reported.

“These facilities are over 60 years old, such that an average of 20 pipeline leaks takes place daily,” Zanganeh added.

Stressing that Kohgilouyeh-Boyerahmad will be the only province, excluding Bushehr and Khuzestan provinces, to have seven petrochem complexes, the official said that with the launch of the plants, many jobs will be created in the province.

According to Zanganeh, the Oil Ministry has recently presented a plan, based on which 3-4% of oil revenues will be allocated to the oil-rich regions, that has been confirmed by the administration.

Referring to Gachsaran’s high potential in the oil industry, he announced that the city’s oilfields are included in a $5-billion development plan that will be finalized soon. The official did not provide further detail.  

Gachsaran Oil and Gas Production Company, a subsidiary of the National Iranian South Oil Company, is the second largest crude producer in the country, NIOC’s portal said.

It produces 630,000 barrels of oil per day, nearly 34 million cubic meters of gas and 35,000 barrels of naphtha.

Kohgilouyeh-Boyerahmad Province produces about 20% of Iran’s total crude oil.