Iran’s petchem sector during Rouhani’s presidency

Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 22

By Dalga Khatinoglu – Trend:

Iran’s petrochemical products output has increased significantly since 2013 when President Hassan Rouhani took office.

According to an official document prepared by Oil Ministry and seen by Trend, the nominal capacity of Iran’s petrochemical plants increased from 51.7 million tons in the first half of a fiscal year (FY) corresponding to 2013 to 61.4 tons and 63.3 tons during the same period of last and current FYs, respectively.

The actual production reached 24.9 million tons during the first half of current FY, about 3.2 million tons more than the same period three years ago.

Petrochemical product exports stood at 12.8 million tons during an FY which corresponds to 2013, but the figure reached 10.3 million tons during the first half of current FY.

Despite a huge increase in volume, the value of petrochemical exports stood at $4.4 billion in the first half of current FY, while the figure was $9.6 billion during 12 months of an FY which corresponds to 2013.

Iran plans to increase the petrochemical production volume to about 130 million tons and 180 million tons by 2020 and 2025.

Iran needs $52 billion of investments to reach the target.

Feedstock

During the last three years, Iran increased the methane and ethane feedstock supplied to petrochemical plants, but the gas condensate deliveries declined.

Details of the supplied feedstock to petrochemical plants:

• Only one third of the volume was used as feedstock and the remaining volume was consumed as fuel.

The report says Iran consumed 46.8 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) of natural gas, of which 35.6 percent was feedstock in petrochemical plants during last fiscal year.

“5.57 tons of gas condensate, 1.775 tons of naphtha, 1.631 tons of ethane, 87,000 barrels of NGLs as well as 210,000 barrels of kerosene were consumed in petrochemical plants,” the annual report said.