TEHRAN June 17(Shana)--Six or seven petrochemical projects with a capacity of 2.7 million tons are to come on-stream this calendar year, director of projects at National Petrochemical Company said.

Marzieh Shah-Daei said the projects would have a production capacity of 2.7 million tons.

She said eight projects with a capacity of 5.8 million tons are also expected to become operational next calendar year which starts in March 2016.

Shah-Daei said petrochemical projects, which are 60% to 100% complete, are prioritized for operation this and next calendar year.

She said 60 half-finished petrochemical projects require a total of $33.4 billion in investment. She added that operation of these projects would double Iran�s petrochemical output to 120 million tons a year.

The NPC chief recently said that $7.5 billion dollar in investment is needed for the production of 60 million tons of petrochemicals a day.

Abbas Shari-Moqaddam said petrochemical plants in Iran are capable of supplying 60 million tons, adding that they are currently producing 45 million tons.

He said NPC plans to reach at least 50 millions of petrochemical production this calendar year which ends in March 2016.

He said that 67 petrochemical projects still remain to be completed. He added that they need finance or feedstock.

�Some of these units have been financed by China�s 2 to 3.6-billion-euro credit line,� said Shari-Moqaddam.

By SHANA