BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 15
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
The annual production capacity of petrochemical products in Iran will increase to 25 million tons in the current Iranian year (from March 20, 2020 to March 21, 2021), Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said during his speech at the parliament, Trend reports referring to the Iranian Parliament’s official website.
“In this regard, 17 plants will be launched in the current Iranian year,” he said.
According to Zanganeh, the production capacity of petrochemical products in Iran was 56 million tons per year 7 years ago (from March 21, 2013 to March 21, 2014).
The minister said that Iran's petrochemical production has been increasing for the past seven years, while it reached 66 million tons per year in the last Iranian year (from March 21, 2019 to March 20, 2020).
Zanganeh noted that Iran's petrochemical production capacity will increase to 100 million tons per year and its value to $25 billion by the end of next Iranian year (March 21, 2021 to March 21, 2022).
"Iran's petrochemical production potential will increase to $133 million and its value to $37 billion after five years (from March 21, 2025 to March 21, 2026)," he said.
The minister added that the refining capacity of Iran's refineries was about 1.8 million barrels per day eight years ago (from March 20, 2012 to March 21, 2013). At present, this figure has risen to 2.1 million barrels.
“The projects to increase refining are being implemented at the refineries of Iran's Abadan, Tabriz, Bandar Abbas, Isfahan and Arak oil refining companies,” he said.
Iran produced 31 million tons of final petrochemical products in the last Iranian year (from March 21, 2019 to March 20, 2020). Of this, 8 million tons were sold domestically and 23 million tons were exported. The total value of sales was $15 billion.
Iran has a total of 125 oil fields and 59 gas fields. The country's total hydrocarbon reserves are estimated at 836 billion barrels. With available technology and equipment, Iran can extract 239 billion barrels. Thus, 29 percent of the country hydrocarbon reserves are recoverable, while 71 percent remain underground.