Iran Petrochemical Output to Reach 100m Tons by 2025

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iran’s petrochemical production capacity will soar to 100 million tons by the end of 20-Year Vision Plan, 2025.

According to the National Petrochemical Company (NPC), the Vision Plan includes four five-year plans that started in 2005.

The country’s current petrochemical production capacity is 32 million tons and the figure is expected to touch 45 million tons by the end of the first five-year plan, PIN said.

Based on the first plan, Iran invests 12.5 billion dollars in 24 petrochemical projects.

According to the statistic, the NPC produced about 15 million tons of products last year while its real output in 1991 stood at 4.3 million tons, showing that the company’s production had tripled within 15 years.

Iran held 0.9 percent share of the world’s total petrochemical output in 2005. The figure is predicted to touch 3.5 percent by the end of 2010.

During the past years, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, China, India, South Korea, Italy, Singapore, and Taiwan were the main target petrochemical markets for Iran, accounting for 86 and 80 percent of Iran’s export-bound products in terms of weight and value respectively.

National Petrochemical Company is currently producing 67 types of petrochemical products.

Petrochemical production in Iran witnessed a 21.4 percent growth late last August when compared to that of August 2005.

According to the Barnameh (Plan) weekly, 16.65 million tons of petrochemical products were produced in the first year of the ninth government’s rule and the figure hit 20.22 million tons in its second year to August.

The petrochemical output in the first year earned the country 2.9 billion dollars and fetched it 3.9 billion dollars in the second year, showing a 34 percent increase in comparison with those in their preceding years.

It added the value of petrochemicals sold inside the country in 2005 surpassed 20 trillion rials (2.1 billion dollars) and the revenue exceeded 26.7 trillion rials (2.8 billion dollars) in 2006, indicating a 32 percent rise.

Iran has earned 3.314 billion dollars through exports of petrochemical products in the first eight months of its current year (started March 21, 2007).

According to the NPC, the country has exported 5.723 million tons of products during the eight-month period.

Weighing 1.65 million tons, liquefied gas had the lion’s share in the exports and methanol, ethylene, propylene, butadiene, dichloride ethylene, LAB, and PTA were the main basic chemical products exported within the period.

Propane, butane, pyrolyse, benzene, pentane plus, and heavy slice were the export-bound byproducts and fuels while benzene, paraxylene, heavy aromatic slice were the aromatic products.

Ammonia, ammonium nitrate, sulfur, and sulfuric acid are fertilizers and related products and light polyethylene, heavy polyethylene, melamine crystal, PVC, and PET are polymer products the country is planning to export.

Iran is currently among the world’s top producers of urea, ammonia, methanol, and ethylene.