Baku, Azerbaijan, April 17
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Iran's output of petrochemical products has fallen by 7.5 million tons during the last Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20), compared to the preceding year.
Deputy minister of oil for planning and supervision on hydrocarbon reserves, Mansour Moazzami said that gas supply to Iranian petrochemical complexes was suspended for 1-2 months last year due to increased domestic gas consumption during the cold season, the country's IRNA news agency reported on April 17.
Iran produced some 41 million tons of petrochemicals during the calendar year of 1391(ended on March 21, 2013), according to the official website of the oil ministry.
National Iranian Petrochemical Company issued a report in March 2013 and forecasted the total petrochemical output to reach 50 million tons during the calendar year of 1392.
However the recent statement of Moazzami indicates that the forecasted figure was not realized and the country's petrochemical production output has fallen by 18 percent.
Iranian petrochemical complexes need 30 to 35 million cubic meters of gas per day, but the gas supply to the petrochemical complexes was reportedly reduced to 15 million cubic meters earlier in February.
Iran's petrochemical exports also failed to show a significant increase in recent months despite the fact that Western countries suspended prohibition on the import, purchase or transport of the Islamic Republic's petrochemical products and related services since January.
The figure surpassed $10.723 billion during the last Iranian calendar year, which indicates an increase by only 1.01 percent compared to the preceding year, the country's customs administration reported on April 7.
The total volume of exported petrochemicals in the last year stood at 14.5 million tons which is even 4 percent less than the previous year.