Deputy for planning at the Petroleum Ministry, Houshang Felahatian made the remarks during the closing day of the 15th Iran Petrochemical Forum here on August 5, expressing hope that dialogues and exchanging views offered in the forum sessions would result in finding ways to promote the place of petrochemical industry.

Referring to the importance of the petrochemical sector in the country, he said that part of non-oil exports is derived from the petrochemical sector whose capacity and worth are on the rise by launching new projects.

By launching new projects, the petrochemical sector's annual production capacity will reach 103 million tons before the end of current Iranian calendar year of 1403, which ends on March 19, 2025, the official said.

Felahatian told the audiences that implementation of about 70 petrochemical projects is underway with the majority of them over 50 percent progress adding the country’s petrochemical production capacity will hit 130 million tons annually at the end of the Seventh National Development Plan in the next five years.  

According to him, the Petroleum Ministry’s coherent planning in upstream and downstream sectors will enable it to raise oil production from 3.6 mb/d to 4 mb/d at the end of this Iranian calendar year on March 19, 2025.

In principle, numerous agreements have been made under which the ministry will try to overcome oil products and natural gas imbalances in the coming years, even though it would be very difficult to achieve the goal unless we can find solutions to manage their consumption, he announced.  

The deputy for planning said that the petrochemical industry should be looked at as a mother industry that provides a noticeable part of the country’s foreign exchange revenues, so the country will be a loser if it does not move toward completing the value chain.

Underlining the importance of increasing reliance on domestic and knowledge-based companies’ capabilities, he said that the oil industry should expand its downstream activities to raise the value of goods it produces several times, helping the national economy to grow further.