Iran’s petrochemical exports approaching $11 billion

TEHRAN,Jan.2(MNA)--Iran exported over $10.8 billion worth of petrochemical products in the first nine months of the current calendar year which started on March 21, 2011. The exports amounted to $6.2 billion in the same period last year. The managing director of the National Petrochemical Company (NPC) of Iran Abdolhossein Bayat stated the value of Iran's petrochemical exports is expected to reach $14 billion by the end of the current Iranian year (March 21, 2012). Bayat noted that Iran produced more than 40 million tons of petrochemical goods in the last Iranian calendar year. The country also exported 18 million tons of petrochemical products worth $11.6 billion last year, showing a 26-percent increase compared to two years ago, he added. Iran has signed up to $18 billion worth of petrochemical deals since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21, 2011), Bayat said on December 12. During the past 46 years, some 46 billion dollars has been invested in this sector to create the capacity of producing over 51 million tons of petrochemical products, while 50 billion dollars will be invested during the fifth five-year development plan (2015-2020) to create the same capacity, the NPC head added. “By the end of the fifth development plan (2015), the country’s oil production must increase to 5.2 million barrels per day (bpd) and this should happen from the country’s joint fields,”Iran's Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said in August. The petrochemical industry accounts for 2 percent of the gross domestic production, 44 percent of the non-oil exports and 55 percent of the industrial exports, he said, adding that the country earned 12 billion dollars from exporting petrochemical products last year.