Azerbaijan, Baku, Apr.5/ Trend G.Mehdi/
Iran will build a large urea fertilizer plant with the annual production capacity of 1.1 million tons, the Tasnim News Agency quoted Iranian deputy oil minister Abdolhossein Bayat as saying.
The plant will come on stream by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2014), he added.
Urea fertilizer production capacity is currently about 4.5 million tons per year and the capacity is projected to be increased by 8 million tons, he noted.
On March 11, the Mehr News Agency quoted Bayat as saying that Iran plans to double its urea fertilizer production capacity by the next two years and become the world's major producer of this petrochemical product.
According to Customs Administration data, the country exported over $1.45 billion worth of urea fertilizer in the past Iranian calendar year (March 2011-March 2012), mainly to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, Syria, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia.
Iran has significantly expanded the range and volume of its petrochemical products over the past few years, and the National Iranian Petrochemical Company (NIPC) has become the second largest producer and exporter of petrochemicals in the Middle East after Saudi Arabia, Press TV reported.
The Islamic Republic exported a total of 18.2 million tons of petrochemical and polymer products, worth about $14.2 billion, to more than 60 countries in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended March 20, 2012).
Iran's petrochemical products mostly include ethylene, methanol, urea, polyethylene and polyolefin, according to the NIPC.
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