Azerbaijan, Baku, Mar.11/ Trend G.Mehdi/
Iran plans to double its urea fertiliser production capacity within the next two years and become the world's major producer of this petrochemical product, the Mehr News Agency quoted Iranian deputy oil minister Abdolhossein Bayat as saying.
The urea fertiliser production capacity is currently about 4.5 million tons per year and projected to increase by eight million tons, he noted.
According to the Customs Administration data, the country exported over $1.45 billion worth of urea fertiliser in the past Iranian calendar year (March 2011-March 2012), mainly to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, Syria, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia.
Iran has significantly expanded the range and volume of its petrochemical products over the past few years and the National Iranian Petrochemical Company (NIPC) has become the second largest producer and exporter of petrochemicals in the Middle East after Saudi Arabia, Press TV reported.
The Islamic Republic exported a total of 18.2 million tons of petrochemical and polymer products worth about $14.2 billion to more than 60 countries in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended March 19, 2012).
Iran's petrochemical products mostly include ethylene, methanol, urea, polyethylene and polyolefin, according to the NIPC.
Iran will offer special facilities to companies which invest in building petrochemical townships across the country, ISNA quoted the National Iranian Petrochemical Company official Mohammad Ziar as saying.
The NIPC will conclude long term contracts with investors to buy raw materials, Ziar added.
The petrochemical townships can also be transferred to the private sector, he noted.
On January 23, the Moj News Agency quoted Ziar as saying Iran will establish 11 petrochemical townships in the Khuzestan and Bushehr provinces in the south of the country.
Building these townships is projected to boost petrochemical exports. Through establishing the townships in border provinces, transportation costs will be reduced, he noted.