Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 14 / Trend F.Milad/
Launching the new petrochemical units which are being built in Iran will raise gas consumption in the country's petrochemical industries to 200 million cubic meters per day from around 33 million cubic meters, the Pana news agency reported.
Although increasing natural gas consumption in petrochemical industries would lead to producing added-value products, but the lack of a certain strategy in the method of pricing natural gas is a matter of concern for economic experts, the report said.
Totally, 69 petrochemical projects should be completed according to the Fifth Five-Year Development Plan (2010-2015), the National Petrochemical Company's managing director announced.
The NPC director had previously told the ISNA news agency that Iran should attract some $6 billion annually to complete 69 petrochemical projects which are underway in the country.
With around 900 billion cubic meters increase in the past two years, Iran in-situ natural gas reserves has surged to 34 trillion cubic meters, an official with Iran's Oil Ministry stated.
Mohsen Khojaste-Mehr told the Mehr news agency that extensive operations are underway to explore new gas deposits across the country which will probably increase the country's proven gas reserves.
Iran's fifth five-year development plan (2010-2015) has envisaged boosting the country's gas production by 250 million cubic meters per day to reach 1.4 billion cubic meters per day.
Despite the implementation of the Subsidy Reform Plan in Iran, the daily gas consumption in household and commercial units have increased by 11 million cubic meters (mcm) since the beginning of the current calendar year (began on March 21, 2011).