TEHRAN (Iran News) – Oil Minister Javad Owji voiced the Iranian Oil Ministry’s all-out support for the completion of the petrochemical value chain.
Addressing a meeting with the executives of petrochemical compounds and members of the energy committee of the Iranian parliament, said: “Due to various reasons, in the past years, sufficient investment has not been made for gas production and we have not reached the goals foreseen in the sixth development plan.”
He said the demand for consumption is constantly increasing in all consumption sectors, including household, power plant and industries, and on the other hand, a drop in pressure and the subsequent drop in gas production in the country’s gas fields every year is seen.
He pointed out that in these years, due to the spread of coronavirus and the decrease in economic growth, no significant investment has been made in the gas industry, and the war between Russia and Ukraine, along with these factors, has caused a sudden increase in global gas prices.
“Estimates of the increase in gas prices show that this situation will take a long time, and the increase in gas production is not sufficient to meet the demand of consumers, and new investments will take years to reach fruition,” Mr. Owji went on to add.
Emphasizing that there is a need for significant investment in Iran due to the imbalance of gas in the cold season, the petroleum minister said: “In these decades, we have only invested in the upstream sector of the petrochemical industry while production and export of raw and semi-raw materials are not economical given the current circumstances. Why should 70% of petrochemical products be exported in crude and semi-crude form and only 30% enter the domestic value chain? Our emphasis is that this rate should be reversed.”
Meanwhile Hoshang Fallahtian, the Deputy Oil Minister for Planning, said the production capacity of the petrochemical industry will increase from currently 94 million tons per year to 140 million tons by 2025, adding that Iran’s petrochemical industry will rake in millions of dollars once new petrochemical compounds come online in the country by 2025, which will dwarf revenues from export of gas condensate.
