Foreign Technical Savvy Could Eliminate Iran's Main Petchem Bottlenecks: CEO

The CEO of the National Petrochemical Company (NPC) said the arrival of foreign technical knowhow could sort out major bottlenecks in the development of the country’s petrochemical industry.
He said technical knowhow is the most important bottleneck in implementation of petrochemical development plans, and added the nuclear negotiations indicate that the space for cooperation is opening up and the communication process is expanding.”

He noted that the petrochemical industry needs the participation and entry of large foreign companies in the two areas of financing and technical knowhow, adding: "We still need to use the world's technical savvy in some processes." Mohammadi said: "Our most important issue is the provision of technical knowledge for petrochemical projects which will render the country 70% needless of imports and the most important bottleneck of these projects is technical savvy, which we hope will happen in the near future.”

He announced that petrochemical companies account for 35% of the total export revenues injected to NIMA. He added that last year, 150% of the petrochemical companies' commitment to NIMA has been realized.

The 67 active petrochemical companies in Iran produced 62 million tons in 1399 (March 2020-21), of which 27 million tons were exported and 35 million tons have been consumed in the country's petchem industry, Behzad Mohammadi said.  He announced the physical progress of 10 reaming project of the petchem industry second leap at 84%; saying that these projects will be implemented by the end of current year. He added that there are 40 active projects in the petchem third leap and the capacity of this industry will reach 135 million tons by 1404 (March 2025-26).

“25 million tons of petchem exports earned US$10 billion", said Behzad Mohammadi. Of the 35 million tons of petchem final products, 10 million tons of petrochemicals worth US$5 billion were sold in the domestic market,” the NPC CEO said.

He mentioned that so far US$79 million have been invested in Iran’s petchem industry and by the finalization of the second leap projects this figure will reach US$82 million and by completion of the third leap projects in 1404, will reach US$105 million.

He went on to say that 85 kinds of catalysts worth US$285 million are consumed in the country annually, out of which 20 catalysts have been localized and 16 other will be indigenized by the end of 1400. - Shana, Financial Tribune