Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 15
By Fatih Karimov – Trend
The petrochemical output capacity of Iran will increase by 1.65 million tons per year, once Marjan petrochemical project to come into stream, SHANA news agency reported Oct. 15.
The petrochemical plant, which is under construction in southern Iran, has been completed by 81 percent.
The SATA Investment Company, which owns 67 percent share in the project, has invested 887 billion rials (each USD makes 31,640 rials based on official rate) for the project so far.
The plant is projected to use 5.1 billion cubic meters of gas per year as feedstock.
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.
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 a lower capacity.
Iran hopes to bring the capacity to 100 million tons by 2020 and 160 million tons by 2025.