MNA – Deputy Minister of Oil for Petrochemical Affairs Behzad Mohammadi said that Iran’s petrochemical industry needs $40 billion for materializing most of its objectives in relevant fields.

He made the remarks in a press conference on Monday and added, “Iran’s petrochemical industry needs $17 billion worth of investment to increase its production capacity by 100 million tons at large.”

He further noted that the aforementioned $40 billion will be provided through domestic and foreign financing scheme.

He went on to say that 27 petrochemical projects will be put into operation within the next two and a half years, four of which will come on stream in the second half of the current year (to start Sept. 21).

Once these 27 petrochemical projects are fully commissioned by 2021, revenues of Iran’s petrochemical industry will hit $25 billion, he added.

With the studies made in this regard, it is predicted that the number of petrochemical complexes will increase from 56 to 83 by 2021, he said, adding, “in this regard, 26 petrochemical projects will be launched from 2021 to 2025, increasing the total production capacity of Iran's petrochemical industry in 2025 to 133 million tons/year which will bring in $37 billion worth of revenues.”

He put the liquid and gas feedstock that petrochemical units receive at 33 million tons, 25 million tons of which are earmarked directly.

Total feedstock volume of petrochemical units in the country stands at 650,000 barrels of oil, he added.

Elsewhere in his remarks, CEO of National Petrochemical Company (NPC) put the total production capacity of 54 petrochemical units in 2016 at 65.8 million tons, the volume of which hit 57 million tons in 2013.

Deputy Oil Minister for Petrochemical Affairs Mohammadi added, “we are not facing any problem with providing feedstock in new petrochemical projects. For this purpose, we have decided to consider 30 percent discount for gas feedstock of the projects that need for the development of their downstream units.