Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 25
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
Iranian petrochemical units will not face feedstock shortage this winter, Ali Mohammad Bosaqzadeh, director of Production Control at the National Petrochemical Company (NPC), said.
Thanks to output increase in South Pars gas field, the ethane feedstock of the country’s petrochemical units will increasein winter, Bosaqzadeh said, the oil ministry’s SHANA news agency reported.
In previous years, certain petrochemical complexes including Kavian, Jam, Morvarid and Aria Sasol failed to operate with their actual capacity due to ethane shortage, the official said, adding that the problem was settled last fiscal year (ended March 20, 2016) and their output will continue this year as well.
He further said that several new petrochemical plants will be inaugurated by March 2017, which will lead to an increase in the country’s petrochemical production capacity.
The country’s actual production capacity is around 61 million tons per year, but the shortage of natural gas as feedstock, old production units and the sanctions which have dropped exports, have caused petrochemical complexes to work at a lower capacity.
Iran hopes to bring the capacity to 120 million tons by 2020 and 180 million tons by 2025.
Iran produced 46.4 million tons of petrochemicals during the last fiscal year, but for the current year, the figure is planned to reach 54.7 million tons.