“Amicable countries have many requests to invest in Iran in order to build petrochemical and petrochemical hubs in Makran and Jask. For example, one of the countries has put an investment proposal of $2.5 billion on the table. Unfortunately, due to sanctions, we cannot provide more details,” Shah Mirzaei stated Monday.
Seventy petrochemical plants are currently operational in Iran, churning more than 550 grades of products. The official added ten more facilities will come on stream by the end of the current Iranian year in March 2024.
“The capacity of Iran's petrochemical industry has reached 92 million tonnes, and with the opening of new projects, this capacity will reach 95 million tonnes by the end of the year,” he continued.
Iran’s petrochemical industry is largely self-sufficient, but it is dependent on imports for more than 25 percent of goods, equipment and chemicals, Shahmirzaei said.
“Even in some units, this amount of dependence reaches 30 percent. We have agreed with domestic technologists and knowledge-based companies to localize the equipment which are mostly high-tech,” he continued, adding that currently, the localization of rotating machines is on the agenda.
“We must produce all the world's strategic petrochemical products in Iran, and it is necessary to move from selling raw materials to producing and selling final products,” the official stated.
Iranian officials say the wide diversity of petrochemical products and huge international demand for them because of their quality and price make the industry unsanctionable.
Iran has reported major increases in exports of petrochemicals and oil products in the past Iranian year (March 21, 2022-January 20, 2023) despite US harsh sanctions.
An industry source stated in mid-February that petrochemicals shipment had accounted for $12 billion or 27% of Iran’s total exports in the 10 months to late January.
Hamdi Hosseini, a senior member of Iran’s Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters Union (OPEX), said oil products exports from Iran had reached $13 billion between March 2022 and January this year.
Hosseini added that Iran had earned some $4.9 billion from exports of 6.6 million metric tons (mt) of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in the nine months to late December, an increase of 120% compared to the same previous period.
He noted exports of methanol from Iran had reached $1.8 billion for 6.8 million mt of shipments in the nine months to late December.
The businessman added that Iran had exported 1.6 million mt of urea worth $975 million in the nine calendar months to the end of 2022, adding that exports of polymers also increased by 77% over the same period.
Iran had earned some $1 billion from exports of bitumen over the 10 months to late January, according to a report.
The figures come amid Iran’s continued efforts to increase its exports of petroleum products and petrochemicals as a solution to avoid foreign sanctions affecting its direct crude oil exports.
Experts say the policy has strengthened Iran’s non-oil exports and led to the creation of tens of thousands of new jobs in the country.
Iranian officials say US attempts to disturb Tehran's trade through sanctions have failed. They state Washington has been defeated in the maximum pressure policy against their country, and confirm that Iran's oil exports has come closer to the figures prior to the re-imposition of the US sanctions.
In quitting the 2015 nuclear deal, former President Donald Trump restored sanctions on Iran as part of what he called the “maximum pressure” campaign against the country. Those sanctions are being enforced to this day by the Joe Biden administration, even though it has repeatedly acknowledged that the policy has been a mistake and a failure.
Tehran says it will not be able to trust Washington as long as President Biden continues the wrong policy of maximum pressure and sanctions practiced by Trump against Iran.
Iranian officials say the Biden administration has yet done nothing but hollow promises to lift sanctions against Tehran. They blast the US addiction to sanctions, and slammed the POTUS for continuing his predecessor's policy on Iran.