BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 3. A number of plants and facilities are currently being built and operations are being carried out within the framework of 27 projects worth over $21 billion in Iran’s Pars Special Economic Energy Zone (PSEEZ) in Bushehr Province (southern Iran), Managing Director of the zone Sakhavat Asadi said, Trend reports.
Among the mentioned plants and facilities, in particular, four oil refineries stand out. With their launch, Iran will stop exporting raw gas condensate as crude from the South Pars gas field. In Iran, gas condensate is exported in raw form, however the Islamic Republic seeks to manufacture final products to get more value. Thus, the launch of the mentioned four refineries should help with the plan.
Asadi also stressed that despite sanctions against Iran in recent years, $150 billion worth of investments have been invested in PSEEZ. Currently, the PSEEZ accounts for 48 percent of the country's petrochemical production. With the launch of new petrochemical plants and facilities, the zone’s petrochemical production is expedted to double, he noted.
“At the same time, the value of exports from the zone for the last Iranian year (March 21, 2022 through March 20, 2023), increased by 40 percent compared to the preceding year (March 21, 2021 through March 20, 2022) and reached $12.3 billion,” the official said.
The Pars Energy Special Economic Zone is located on 46,000 hectares of land in Iran’s Bushehr Province.
The South Pars gas field (called North Dome in Qatar) is a joint gas field between Iran and Qatar. The proven reserves of the South Pars Gas Field are estimated at 51 trillion cubic meters of gas, of which 36 trillion are extractable. Iran's share in the field is 14 trillion cubic meters of gas and 18 billion barrels of gas condensate.
On May 8, 2018, the US announced its withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between Iran and the 5+1 group (Russia, China, the UK, France, the US, and Germany), and imposed new sanctions against Iran as of November 2018.
Over the past period, the sanctions affected Iranian oil exports, more than 700 banks, companies, and individuals. The sanctions have resulted in the freezing of Iranian assets abroad.
Iran's annual petrochemical production capacity is currently 92 million tons. By the end of the current year (March 21, 2023 through March 19, 2024), this figure is estimated to reach 95 million tons.
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