MOSCOW (MRC) -- The lifting of sanctions on Iran has made development of the country’s petrochemical value chain one of the most promising avenues to significantly add value to its economy, according to a new Frost & Sullivan report, as per GV.
"Abundance of feedstock, relatively suitable infrastructure, low cost of production and access to skilled labors are key factors that make Iran interesting for investors in the petrochemical space," in the opinion of Ali Mirmohammad, Frost & Sullivan’s senior consultant and business development manager for Iran. "The country’s natural reserves of ethane, propane and naphtha are sufficient to set up new petrochemical complexes within the next 10 years."
Additionally, he noted, "the government is adopting a foreign policy approach to not only strengthen local capabilities, but also to increase non-oil exports to more than USD 50-billion based on downstream verticals derived from petrochemical and mining industries."
The “Iran Vision 2025” aims to make the country the largest producer of petrochemical products along the value chain in the region. To achieve this goal will require at least USD 70-billion of financial resources. Such an investment is expected to increase petrochemical industry exports to over USD 40-billion by the end of 2025 from less than USD 12-billion in 2015.
Iran plans to attract foreign investments to resume over 60 halted petrochemical projects that would increase production capacity to 130-million t/y in the next five years from 58-million t/y currently. The government has proposed 36 new investment projects that could raise the production capacity to over 180-million t/y in 2025.
"Creating value-added opportunities along the entire propylene industry value chain is one of the primary focus areas for the government for the next 10 years with regard to the petrochemical sector," said Ali. "Importing high technologies and catalysts to produce various grades of polypropylene are other key policies."
To encourage investment, the government is offering several incentive plans, including discounts on natural gas, long-term tax-exempt savings plans, and 25-year guaranteed feedstock supply agreements.
As MRC informed previously, as of 2015, a number of active Iranian Petrochemical complexes are 53, with total production capacity of 59 million metric ton, producing range of polymers, chemicals, aromatics & liquid gas, located mainly at Iranian south region, next to Persian Gulf, called Assaluyeh and Mahshahr Special Economic Zones.
At the moment, there are 67 developments projects in the country which are under construction, adding 61 million metric ton on total production and estimated to fully run till 2018.
MRC