Iranian Officials Stress Construction of 13 Downstream Petrochemical Chain Towns

Various similar meetings have been held in the presence of Mokhber in the past few months to discuss the oil ministry’s plans to establish petrochemical towns, petrochemical complementary industries and petrochemical networks in the field of complementary industries chain, specially in less privileged areas, in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman border strip in cooperation with the Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries.

Assessment of about 700 petrochemical projects and products, identifying 13 petrochemical towns and locating these projects with the help of the Persian Gulf petrochemical industries and with exports-oriented priority are among the government's measures in this field, and the necessary measures have been adopted so far to start the establishment of 4 petrochemical towns in the four Southern provinces of Iran with an investment of over $1bln and job creation for more than 20,000 people.

These petrochemical towns make products in the fields of industry, agriculture, agricultural poisons, healthcare, car-making and construction industries which will prevent crude sales in this sector.

Iran has relied on petrochemicals as a major source of earning hard currency in recent years as the country has been facing a series of tough American sanctions targeting its direct exports of crude oil.

China has been the top customer of Iranian petrochemical shipments in recent years while exports to countries in the region have also surged since the United States imposed its sanctions on Iran in 2018.

The expansion of the Iranian petrochemical sector has also led to a significant rise in the number of jobs in the country. Estimates suggest the number of direct jobs in the sector is more than 920,000 compared with a total of 107,000 direct jobs registered in the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry in Iran.

4155/v