Increase in petrochemical industry capacity by 35 million tons with the implementation of 66 development projects

According to Energy Press, based on the Seventh Development Plan, the country’s petrochemical industry has a mission to increase the nominal production capacity from the current 96.6 million tons to 131.5 million tons per year, relying on macro policies in line with achieving 8 percent economic growth. According to Hossein Alimurad, Director of Planning and Development of the National Petrochemical Industries Company, this goal will be pursued through the implementation of 66 development projects with a total nominal capacity of 35 million tons, some of which will be put into operation by the end of this year. In addition to increasing capacity, the main focus of the program is on completing the value chain in the areas of methanol, ethylene, propylene and aromatics to increase the share of high value-added products in the export basket and reduce dependence on exports of basic products.
Believing that a realistic view of the plan is created when planning is done with a deep look at resource limitations and environmental conditions, Alimurad says: The strategic view of developing the value chain has been well observed in the formulation of the Seventh Development Plan, taking into account the limitations and challenges of providing the resources needed for development, and we hope that in addition to the 8 percent growth of the Seventh Development Plan, 1.5 to 2 percent will be added to this goal by increasing the productivity of production factors.
Hossein Alimurad, Director of Planning and Development of the National Petrochemical Industries Company, in the first part of the conversation with the Oil and Energy Information Network (SHANA), presents a clear picture of the strategies and priorities of this industry in the horizon of the Seventh Development Plan, which you can read below.
Mr. Engineer, considering the focus of the 14th government on the target of 131 million tons of nominal capacity of the petrochemical industry by the end of the Seventh Development Plan, what plans have been considered to achieve it?
Based on the Supreme Leader’s instructions for an 8% growth of the country’s economy, the National Petrochemical Company has considered specific strategies and solutions in developing the value chain of basic products such as methanol, ethylene, propylene, and aromatics. With the plans made for the development of the country’s petrochemical industry, it is predicted that in some years of the Seventh Development Plan, the nominal production capacity of this industry will grow by more than 8% and in some other years, we will experience a growth of less than that, but the average growth of this industry during the plan will be 8%. Therefore, the development of other downstream and complementary industries with the growth of the petrochemical industry will have a positive effect on the gross national product and the sustainable economic growth desired by the country’s planners will be achieved.
It is necessary to point out that the 8% production growth targeted in the petrochemical industry is due to the investments made and the launch of new projects. Production growth through improving the productivity of production factors, including the use and utilization of the empty capacity of the petrochemical industry and the lack of production at nominal capacity, is not seen in this program. We hope that by removing production barriers such as the provision of feed, equipment, and proper planning of preventive maintenance, production growth of more than 8% will be achieved and we will achieve production at the full nominal capacity of the petrochemical industry. In the path to achieving this growth, job creation and the use of domestic capacity in the field of capital supply and the capital market have also been predicted in the Seventh Five-Year Development Plan. The slogan of the 14th government is based on the implementation of the Seventh Plan: Progress. For this purpose, and based on Article 47 of this plan, the development of the value chain has been emphasized in the Five-Year Plan, and according to it, the petrochemical industry should reach an annual nominal capacity of 131 million tons from the current annual nominal capacity of 96.6 million tons. In addition, according to the planning carried out by the end of 1407, 11.6 million tons will be added to the propylene production capacity, 700,000 tons to the methanol chain capacity, 3.3 million tons to the ethylene chain excluding polyethylene, 8.6 million tons to polyethylene production, and 3 million tons to the aromatic downstream.