President launches $1.3bn worth of new petrochemical projects

President Hassan Rouhani has inaugurated three more petrochemical plants in the country with an investment of over $1.3 billion as he hails his government’s records in job creation and improved manufacturing activity through the expansion of the country’s petchem sector.

According to reports, the president used a video conference call on Thursday to open the three plants that are located in the energy-rich regions south of Iran.

His website said in a report that the projects create a total of 2,454 new and permanent jobs.

The largest of the three projects in terms of output size is the Masjed Soleyman Petrochemical Plant, built in the namesake city where the first oil well was discovered in Iran in 1908.

The plant is expected to produce 1.7 million tons per annum (mtpa) of urea and ammonia.

The two other petchem plants on the Persian Gulf coast in Asaluyeh would feed on gas supplies from Iran’s South Pars gas field.

One of them, dubbed Sabalan Asaluyeh, would reach a production capacity of 1.65 mpta for methanol in the first year of operation.

The president hailed the rollout of the three projects as a sign of massive expansion in the Iranian petrochemical sector in recent years.

He said petrochemical output would double at the end of his eight-year term in office this summer to 100 mpta.

Rouhani’s government had said in March 2020 that it would launch 17 new petrochemical plants before it leaves office. The president said the mission was accomplished with the inaugurations that came on Thursday.

“What matters is that we resisted and did not lose our spirit despite all the economic pressures,” said Rouhani in reference to US sanctions that have targeted Iran’s energy sector since 2018.

SS