Tehran, Iran, May 8
By Temkin Jafarov, Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:
Economic sanctions on Iran have turned the country into an nth-rate country in different economic fields even in areas where Iran was a leading country before sanctions were imposed.
While the petrochemical industry has been turning more and more toward using ethane for its various good points, Iran has not been able to follow that in its petrochemical industry as it must have, all because of the sanctions, Sina Afsarian, sales manager at Top Tak, Zeppelin agency in Iran, told Trend May 7 on the sidelines of the Iran Oil Show 2015 in Tehran.
There is large added value in the petrochemical industry, said Afsarian. 'We haven't been able to develop the industry due to the sanctions and now countries like Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan are becoming the hubs whereas Iran was the first regional country to start developing a petrochemical industry,' he added.
He went on to say that Iran enjoys great opportunities to have a robust petrochemical industry, but due to the sanctions there are not many plastic factories in the country, which has created a big dent in the country's economy.
Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh says Iran plans to splash out $180 billion to revive and renovate its oil, gas and petrochemical industries by 2022.
Addressing an energy security summit in Berlin, the minister said Iran has always been a trustful energy supplier, adding the country wants to regain its position in the energy market.
A series of sanctions by the US and the Europeans has reduced Iran's oil exports to around 1 million barrels per day.
Zangeneh said Iran's exports must return to the level before the sanctions at minimum of 4 million bpd.
Iran's petrochemical export hit $14.2 billion last Iranian fiscal year (which ended March 20), less than the pre-sanctions era.
The country's petrochemical output in the same year rose by some 7 percent to reach 44 million metric tons. This is while Iran's petrochemical capacity has been 60 million metric tons.