Official: Iran Potential Player in World Propylene Production

Date: 14 August 2019 - 21:51

News ID: ۶۹۳۳۱

TEHRAN (Shana) – A senior adviser to the Social Security Investment Company (SSIC) said Iran could play an influential role in the global propylene production by investing heavily in the methanol industry.
Addressing a monthly oil and energy club meeting in assessment of the challenges facing the petrochemical industry in the world, the Middle East and Iran on Tuesday, Mohammad Hassan Peyvandi said: "The petrochemical industry and GDP have an impact on each other in oil producing and exporting countries.”
He cited some of the challenges in the petrochemical industry including the North American shale gas boom, and plans to increase liquefied natural gas (LNG) and ethane production, export to Europe and Asia, and its impact on polyethylene prices, synthetic gas production from coal, and the availability and development of methanol-to-olefin conversion technologies in China.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), hydrocarbons, especially natural gas, continue to play a key role in supplying the world's most needed energy by 2040, he said, adding Iran, would play a major part in this field given its vast hydrocarbon reserves.
Peyvandi said the United States had no share in the world's LNG production capacity in 2013, but it was projected to overtake 10 percent of the Middle East's share in the market by 2020. This would mean that the ME’s current 34% in the LGN market would shrink to 24% by 2020.