Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 12
By Khalid Kazimov – Trend:
Petrochemical output of the Islamic Republic of Iran over the first half of the current Iranian calendar year (started March 20) has increased by 7 percent year-on-year, a senior official with the country’s oil ministry said.
Director of Production Control at National Petrochemical Company (NPC) Alimohammad Bosaqzadeh has said 47 petrochemical complexes in the country produced over 23 million tons of petrochemicals during the mentioned period, SHANA news agency reported Sept. 12.
The country’s actual production capacity is around 61 million tons per year, but the shortage of natural gas as feedstock, old production units and the sanctions which have dropped exports, have caused petrochemical complexes to work at lower capacity.
The Islamic Republic hopes to bring the capacity to 120 million tons by 2020 and 180 million tons by 2025.
Iran produced 46.4 million tons of petrochemicals during the last fiscal year, but for the current year, the figure is planned to reach 54.7 million tons.