Azerbaijan, Baku, Apr.17/ Trend G.Mehdi/
The 18th international exhibition on Iran's oil, gas, and petrochemicals (Iran oil show) will open in Tehran on Thursday, IRNA reported.
Some 1000 Iranian and foreign companies will participate at the exhibition, which will run for four days.
Iran exported some $12 billion worth of petrochemical products in the past Iranian calendar year which ended on March 20, the Shana News Agency quoted Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Abdolhossein Bayat as saying.
The volume of exported products amounted to about 16 million tons, he noted.
Last year, petrochemical products were exported to around 60 countries of the world, he said.
Iran's nominal petrochemical production capacity was increased by about 13.2 per cent in the previous Iranian calendar year, according to Shana.
The Far East, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa were the main destinations of Iranian products.
In March, Bayat said the country's petrochemical output is planned to hit 100 million tons by 2015.
Bayat said Iran is in negotiations with some countries for exporting its new petrochemical products.
In February, Bayat announced Iran's plans to establish three new petrochemical hubs in the near future, saying the projects will turn Iran into the biggest petrochemical producer in the Middle East, Press TV reported.
Iran has significantly expanded the range and volume of its petrochemical products over the past few years and the NPC has become the second largest producer and exporter of petrochemicals in the Middle East after Saudi Arabia.