Morteza Shahmirzaie made the remark at a press conference held on the sidelines of the 28th Iran International Oil, Gas, ‎Refining and ‎Petrochemical Exhibition, also ‎known as Iran Oil Show 2024, adding, “The number of petrochemical complexes will increase to 80 once these projects come online.”

Last year was a remarkable year for Iran’s petrochemical projects, he said, adding, “The NPC along with petrochemical holdings and companies has started to move towards the realization of this year’s motto since the beginning of the current Iranian year (began March 20, 2024).”

He went on to say that the capacity of Iran’s petrochemical industry will surpass 100 million tons when the projects come on stream.

Referring to the feedstock needed in petrochemical complexes, he said, “Feedstock is the main issue for increasing production. We are seeking investment in oil industry upstream sector and gas inventory in order to ensure stable supply of the needed feedstock. To this end, we signed a number of memoranda of understanding with petrochemical companies to invest in the development of oil and gas fields.”

He pointed to the investment as a priority in completing the value-chain, he noted we need to try to complete the value chain if we want to have a dynamic, sustainable and improving industry at an international level.

Speaking about the plan to indigenize catalyst production in Iran by yearend (to end on March 20, 2025), he noted we try to increase the orders of locally-made products in petrochemical industry.

He also announced that new investment methods and packages will be offered in near future which require parallel movements by the holdings.

Indigenizing technical know-how has been a challenge in the petrochemical industry, he said, adding, “We have already taken appropriate measures in this regard.”

Referring to the development of petrochemical parks, he said 7-10 million tons of methanol will be converted into methanol-based products in 21 plants in Methanol Park in Parsian Energy Intensive Industrial Special Economic Zone through the methanol-to-olefins (MTO) and Methanol to propylene (MTP) methods.

The 28th Iran International Oil, Gas, ‎Refining and ‎Petrochemical Exhibition, also ‎known as Iran Oil Show 2024, started on Wednesday May 8 at Tehran International Permanent Fairground. The exhibition, having the motto “Petroleum industry, production leap and technological optimization” hosts 1500 Iranian and 250 international companies from 12 countries and will wrap up today (Saturday, May 11, 2024).