Behzad Mohammadi, Head of Iran’s National Petrochemical Company (NPC) said that Iran is on its way to become leading petrochemical producer in the region after the fulfillment of the industry’s third leap, projecting in the year 1404 Iranian calendar (begins March 2025). In addition with second and third leap projects, 34 new projects totalling at $17 billion in investment and total capacity of 19 million tons also ongoing. After the completion, Iran’s position will be more privileged. Mohammadi pointed at the Iranian petrochemical industry’s pioneering project and said such a project is the country’s petrochemical industry key to development. He also stressed that along with the plans, the choice of petrochemical projects based on mixed feedstock is determined by thinking, effort, engineering, and accurate market calculations.
The Head of NPC also highlighted that the development of Iran’s petrochemical industry should be sustainable and qualitative, and the smart development had been pre-planned while aiming for 100 million tons of capacity based on its Sixth Five-year National Development Plan (2016-2021), Iran would have resilient and stable industry against external problems like sanctions.
Mentioning about Iran’s total oil and gas reserves which ranks first in the world, the NPC head said the development of the petrochemical industry would be a necessity considering the amount of available feedstock in the country. Regarding the availability, four large projects based on mixed feedstock with a total investment of $11 billion will increase the capacity to reach 11 million tons. The NPC’s pioneering project had been classified into 4 major feedstock categories; methanol, benzene, ethylene, propylene. Currently, 20 smart projects have been defined along these categories to diversify export and meet the domestic demand.
Petrochemical industry currently act a part of crucial role in Iran’s non-oil trade and economy. Official data shows that the export of petrochemical products makes the second-largest earner in hard currency for Iran after crude oil, totalling in nearly 33% of the non-oil exports.
