This has helped Iran improve its status in international petrochemical markets, raise its exports of raw materials and boost production of downstream products, according to IRNA.

Iran’s petrochemical industry has taken two major leaps since 1997. During 1997-2013, the country managed to increase its production of petrochemicals from 5.8 million tons per year to 22.6 million tons per annum. In addition, the value of Iran’s overseas sales of petrochemicals reached $11.85 billion in 2013 from $500 million in 1997.

As part of the industry’s second huge leap, the country’s installed production capacity amounted to 66 million tons per year over the past six years. This was accomplished by completing the implementation of 15 projects in this period with $5.4 billion in investments and helped Iran’s exports of petrochemicals witness a 1.5-fold growth since 2013.

Among the achievements of the Iranian petrochemical industry’s accelerated development over the past six years have been a decline in the country’s exports of raw materials, an increase in its creation of added-value and a boost in the production of downstream products.

In the year to March 2019, 8.5 million tons of petrochemicals, 29.5 percent of the country’s total output, were consumed domestically.

Despite the imposition of unilateral sanctions by Washington on Tehran, Iranian petrochemical firms are still exporting their products, generating substantial foreign currency revenues.

In May 2018, Donald Trump pulled the US out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, signed between Iran and the P5+1 in July 2015, and reimposed Washington’s unilateral sanctions on Tehran.

In light of the Iranian government’s management of domestic petrochemical companies’ income, currently, the firms’ foreign currency revenues are injected almost entirely into the country’s economy, of which 80 percent are made available for imports through Iran’s domestic Forex Management Integrated System (locally known as NIMA).

The accelerated development of the domestic petrochemical industry has also helped create close to one million direct jobs.

If the development of the Iranian petrochemical sector continues to gather momentum, the country’s annual petrochemical production capacity will stand at 100 million tons in the year to March 2022, generating $37 billion in foreign currency revenues. This means that Iran’s annual installed production capacity of petrochemicals would increase 79 percent by March 2022, compared to the figure for 2013, thus, helping the income generated by the sector see an over 60 percent growth.

To achieve this target, 28 high priority projects are required to be completed in the country by March 2021 with $17 billion in investments.