Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug.1
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran has allocated $800 million to the establishment of Dehloran petrochemical complex.
Iranian MP Ali-Mohammad Ahmadi said the complex includes olefin and polyethylene production units, and utilities unit, the Fars news agency reported on August 1.
Dehloran petrochemical complex in western province of Ilam is projected to produce 1.4 million tons of products per year.
Ilam province ranks second and third in Iran in terms of natural gas and crude oil reserves, accounting for 15 percent of gas reserve and 8 percent of oil reserve, respectively.
Iran's petrochemical output rose over 5 percent in the first four months of the current Iranian year.
Ali-Mohammad Bassaqzadeh, production control manager at the National Iranian Petrochemical Company, said the production rise was due to the inauguration of four production units at phases 12, 15, and 16 of the South Pars gas field, the IRNA news agency reported on July 25.
He predicted that the country's petrochemical output would hit 48 million tons by the end of the current year (March 2015).
On July 23, Mohammad Hossein Peivandi, deputy managing director of National Iranian Petrochemical Company, said Iran's petrochemical exports rose by 6 percent in spring 2014 compared to 2013.
Petrochemical production grew by 6.5 percent in spring, which corresponds to the first quarter of the current Iranian calendar year.
Dehloran petrochemical complex, the construction of which started in 2009, is one of the so-called semi-finished petrochemical projects in Iran. In February, National Iranian Petrochemical Company's Managing Director Abbas Sheri Moqaddam said Iran needs $31 billion to inaugurate 60 semi-finished petrochemical projects.
To date, just $5 billion is estimated to be spent in the projects, the Mehr News Agency quoted Sheri Moqaddam as saying.
Once the projects come on stream, they will increase the country's annual petrochemical output by 55 million tons, he said, adding that $74 billion is needed to expand the national petrochemical industry in the next 8-10 years.