TEHRAN (Iran News) –The managing director of Iran’s Pars Special Economic Energy Zone (PSEEZ) has said 27 development projects with a total investment of $21 billion are underway in the region, Shana reported.

Speaking in a meeting of the managers of the country’s oil industry on Thursday, Sekhavat Asadi said: “Despite the sanctions, 150 billion dollars has been invested in the upstream and downstream sectors of the oil industry in the Pars Special Economic Energy Zone.”

The official noted that four petro-refineries are also being constructed in the zone and after the completion of these complexes Iran will no longer need to export the gas condensate produced at the South Pars.

Underlining the fact that South Pars accounts for 48 percent of the country’s petrochemical production, the official said: “With the new projects completed, the South Pars output will double.”

Asadi pointed out that the feed for the petrochemical complexes in this region is supplied from the gas produced at the South Pars field, stating that the Persian Gulf Star Refinery, which supplies 40 percent of the country’s gasoline, receives 100 percent of its feed from South Pars gas condensate.

He noted that exports from PSEEZ increased by 40 percent in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20) to reach $12.3 billion.

According to the official, over 90,000 people are currently working in the PSEEZ.

Located in the port city of Assaluyeh, PSEEZ is home to several petrochemical complexes that receive gas and gas condensate feedstock from the giant South Pars gas field, which Iran shares with Qatar in the Persian Gulf.

The zone is the hub of Iran’s exports of major non-oil commodities including gas condensate and petrochemicals.

Earlier on Wednesday, an official with the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) said that the emission of flare gases in the refineries of the South Pars gas complex are going to decrease by 36 percent by the end of the current Iranian calendar year 1402 (late March 2024).

According to Mohammad Hosseini, flare gas emissions at the South Pars refineries decreased to three billion cubic meters in the previous Iranian year (ended on March 20) from 3.2 billion cubic meters in the year 1400.

Hosseini said the figure is expected to fall to 1.9 billion cubic meters by the end of the current year.