Azerbaijan , Baku, Feb. 22 / Trend, A.Yusifzade /
Iran ranks second in petrochemicals production across the Middle East, National Iranian Petrochemical Company (NIPC) Managing Director Abdolhossein Bayat said, Iran Daily reported.
Saudi Arabia (with annual production of 58 million tons) and Qatar (11 million tons) occupy the first and third places, respectively, IRIB reported.
He referred to self-sufficiency in urea fertilizer as the main achievement of petrochemical industry in recent years.
"Apart from meeting domestic need, we have started to export urea fertilizer," Bayat added.
"The petrochemical industry has generated 700,000-1,000,000 jobs across the country and the industry has succeeded to end deprivation of various regions such as southern city of Mahshahr."
According to Bayat, close to 12 petrochemical projects would be inaugurated by the yearend (March 20, 2011), putting the investment at 21,250 billion rials, (over $21 million).
The proposed projects have upped the country's petrochemical output by 2.7 million tons, he added.
Iran has the capacity to produce 51 million tons of petrochemical products annually.
Earlier, Bayat said China, Turkey and Malaysia have expressed their readiness for investing in Iran's petrochemical projects.
Iranian petrochemical sector produced 31.113 million tons of petrochemical products over the first ten months of the current Iranian calendar year (started March 21, 2010).
Earlier Iranian minister of petroleum Seyed Masoud Mirkazemi said that Iranian petrochemical sector has defined some projects worth $49 billion, while some of them have progressed by 98 percent.
Iran currently produces 25.8 percent of petrochemical products of the Middle East and 2.4 percent of the global output.