Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said Iran’s annual ethane production has increased by 60% over the course of four years to March 2018, amounting to 6 million tons, and is slated to observe a big leap by 2021.
"The country's ethane production capacity stood at 3.8 million tons per year in 2014, while the figure increased to 6.11 million tons by the end of the last fiscal [March 2018]," Zanganeh was also quoted as saying by Shana on Tuesday.
He noted that it will reach 8 million tons per annum by the end of the current fiscal (March 20, 2019).
Zanganeh noted that “domestic demand for ethane amounts to 5.5 million tons currently, therefore we will export the surplus production."
Referring to ethane as the principal element of petrochemical goods, he said, "Each ton of ethane can earn at least $1,000 in petrochemical export revenue."
Zangane referred to the ongoing petrochemical ventures and said, "Plans are on the agenda to raise output by up to 12.75 million tons by March 2020 and make it 17.6 million tons by 2021."
The country's petrochemical output currently stands at 62.15 million tons per year, which will exceed 65.55 million tons with a total revenue of $14 billion with new ventures on stream by the yearend.
Three major petrochemical ventures, namely Marjan Petrochemical Company—aka 7th Methanol Project—in Phase 2 of South Pars in Asalouyeh, Phase 3 of Pardis Petrochemical Company and a power plant in Damavand Petrochemical Complex officially became operational on Tuesday.
Petrochemical is Iran's biggest industry after oil and gas.
The National Petrochemical Company 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.
Over the course of the past 5 years, since 2013, the year President Hassan Rouhani took office, 15 major petrochemical projects have come on stream, the official said.
Other ventures, namely Kavian Petrochemical Plant in Asalouyeh, Nouri and Jam petrochemical companies in the southern Bushehr Province as well as Morvarid and Mobin petrochemical complexes in the southern port city of Asalouyeh, are underway and are expected to become complete by the end of the current fiscal year.
Plans have been devised to raise output in Bandar Imam Petrochemical Complex, Shahid Tondgouyan Petrochemical Complex in Bandar Mahshahr, Takht-e-Jamshid Petrochemical Plant in Mahshahr Special Petrochemical Economic Zone in Khuzestan Province and Urmia Petrochemical Plant in West Azarbaijan Province by 150,000 tons, 26,000 tons, 50,000 tons and 40,000 tons per annum respectively.
