TEHRAN – Secretary of Iran’s Association of Petrochemical Industry Corporation Ahmad Mahdavi has said that Iran earned some $3.39 billion from exports of petrochemical products in the first three months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21 to June 22, 2024).
Mahdavi said exports had accounted for 7.74 million mt of Iran’s petrochemical output in the three months to late June, adding that petrochemical companies had also sold nearly 3 million mt of products to domestic customers over the same period while consuming the rest of the output as feedstock.
The official said this calendar year’s exports of petrochemicals from Iran would definitely exceed figures reported in the year to March 2023.
Petrochemicals are responsible to for a major part of Iranian non-oil exports revenues. The country has introduced incentives to increase exports from the sector in recent years as it seeks to increase its output to above 100 million mt per year.
However, meeting the target needs increased investment for launching new plants as well as higher supply of natural gas feedstock.
Mahdavi said the Iranian central bank had committed to provide funding to a total of 11 new petrochemical projects whose investment value is below $50 million.
He said that the Iranian petrochemical companies seek to invest some $8 billion in development projects in the country’s oil and gas sector, adding that the investment could lead to an increase of 200 million cubic meters per day in Iran’s natural gas production, allowing petrochemical plants to increase their output.