TEHRAN (Shana) - Iran is expecting to launch three major petrochemical projects by the end of the current Iranian calendar year to March 20 2018, Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh said.
Addressing the opening ceremony of IranPlast Exhibition here in Tehran on Sunday, Zangeneh said Kaveh, Phase III of Pardis and Bushehr petrochemical projects will come online by the end of the current calendar year.
Once operational, the projects will add 5.5 million tons to the country's annual petrochemical production capacity.
Iran launched several petrochemical projects last year which included Lorestan, Urmia, Mahabad, Karoon, Kurdistan, Morvarid, Kavian, Entekhab and Takht Jamshid projects.
Moreover, the country launched three polyethylene facilities during the year with 1 million ton/year of production capacity.
"We must exploit the presence of foreign investors in order to boost value of productions, access state-of-the-art technologies and generation of value-added, while refraining from production of low-value items," Zangeneh said.

Oil, Gas Most Compliant Sectors to Economic Resilience

Meanwhile, first Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri says oil, gas and petrochemical industries are the most compliant sectors to the principles of economic resilience.
Addressing the opening ceremony, the official said oil and gas sectors together with the petrochemical industry have set the best records for performing in line with Economic Resilience Policies.
"The newly-devised model of oil contracts which took a relatively long period of time for their arraignment, were endorsed by many of the country's scholars in the field and provide the best chance for international majors to start cooperating with Iran in oil and gas projects," said the official.
He said the petrochemical sector is a priority for attraction of foreign finances.
"Iran has secured over $14b of investments in the post-JCPOA setting," Jahangiri said, adding the private sector is the first priority for tapping foreign resources.