Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar. 27
By Dalga Khatinoglu – Trend:
Despite Iran’s growing petrochemical production level, the idle capacity of plants increased significantly.
According to an official report prepared by National Petrochemical Company and seen by Trend, about 25 percent of Iran’s nominal petrochemical production capacity was idle during 11 months of last fiscal year (ended March 20). During the previous fiscal year (2015/2016), the figure was 20 percent.
The country added about 4.3 million tons per year (mn t/y) to its nominal petrochemical production capacity during 11 months of last fiscal year.
|
Iran’s petrochemicals output |
11 months of last fiscal year (2016/2017) |
12 months of the previous fiscal year (2015/2016) |
|
Nominal capacity (mn t) |
62.2 |
57.9 |
|
Projected production (mn t) |
52.945 |
49.365 |
|
Actual production (mn t) |
46.17 |
46.41 |
|
Idle capacity |
25% |
20% |
|
Share of feedstock shortage in idle capacity |
47.9% |
44.8% |
Source: National Petrochemical Company
The statistics indicate that the share of feedstock shortage in idle capacity increased about 3.1 percent to around 48 percent.
It is not clear why the idle capacity of Iran’s petrochemical plants increased during last year, while the gross gas production increased by at least 20 billion cubic meters (bcm) to around 284 bcm due to launching new phases in South Pars gas field. About 97 percent of Iran’s produced gas is methane and the rest are ethane, propane, butane, etc. However, detailed statistics in the mentioned document indicate that there is a huge gap (1-1.3 mn t/month) between actual output and the projected production volume in late summer and early fall of last year. The mentioned gap also widened (0.7 mn t) in the 11th month (Jan. 22-Feb. 22, 2017). It is worth noting that several petrochemical plants, which some of them produce feedstock for other plants, suffered fires in summer.
Despite the increasing idle capacity, the production volume during the 11 months of last fiscal year is almost equal to that of the entire previous year.
The country’s domestic petrochemical sale and exports increased in volume, despite falling in value.
|
Iran’s petrochemicals sale |
11 months of last fiscal year |
Y/Y change (%) |
12 months of the previous year (2015/2016) |
Y/Y change (%) |
|
Export (mn t) |
18.680 |
8.38 |
18.809 |
18 |
|
Export (billion $) |
8.420 |
-3.32 |
9.586 |
-7 |
|
Domestic sale (mn t) |
14.320 |
17.02 |
13.968 |
-14 |
|
Domestic sale (billion rial) |
262,304 |
20.27 |
241,485 |
-28 |
Source: National Petrochemical Company
Iran says it plans to double the nominal petrochemical production capacity by 2021 and increase the figure to 150 mn t/y in 2026 by attracting $55 billion of investment.
Currently about 63 petrochemical projects are under development in Iran, which need about $20 billion to be completed by 2021.
---
Dalga Khatinoglu is the head of Trend Agency’s Iran news service, follow him on Twitter: @dalgakhatinoglu