Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 17
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Iran produced 23.6 million tons of petrochemical products in the first half of the current Iranian fiscal year, which started on March 21, National Iranian Petrochemical Company's production control manager Ali Mohammad Bassaqzadeh said.
The country's petrochemical production rose by five percent compared to the same period in the last year, Bassaqzadeh said, the oil ministry's official SHANA news agency reported Oct. 17.
He further said that Iranian petrochemical units worked with 76 percent of their total output capacity in the period, some four percent more year on year.
Once Phase 15, 16, 17 and 18 of the of the South Pars gas field start supplying petrochemical units with ethane, methane and condensate in current Iranian year the Petrochemical output would experience the long awaited increase, he added.
In recent years Iran has faced gas shortage in winter and supplied ethane to petrochemical complexes due to an increase of household gas consumption in the cold season.
Iranian petrochemical plants use 37 million cubic meters of natural gas per day, while Iran could deliver only 2.8 million tons of ethane to plants during last year totally. The country planned to increase this volume to 4.2 million tons in current fiscal year.
Iran's petrochemical output hit 44.4 million tons in the past Iranian fiscal year (ended on March 20), 10 percent more year-on-year.
The country's actual production capacity is around 60 million tons, but the shortage of natural gas as feedstock, old production units, and the problem of sanctions, which has dropped exports, have caused petrochemical complexes to work at lower capacities.