Iran plans to hike six-fold its petrochemical revenues to 20 billion dollars a year by 2015, the country's Minister of Oil Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said despite Western industry experts saying the target may prove "too ambitious".
"Our aim is to produce 70 million tonnes of petrochemical products in 2015, worth 20 billion dollars," Zanganeh said during a weekend petrochemical conference in Tehran.
Over the past Iranian year, which runs from March to March, Iran produced just over 16 million tonnes of petrochemical goods, worth 2.7 billion dollars, of which 1.2 billion dollars was exported.
"We hope over the current year to pass the 3.5-billion-dollar mark and to increase our production by 50 percent the following year," in 2005-2006, the minister said Sunday.
Zanganeh added 11 billion dollars of investment was to be pumped into the sector under Iran's five-year plan of 2005-2010.
In 2010, "we should have reached a production level of 56 million tonnes, earning Iran seven billion dollars in exports", he said. (menareport.com)
© 2004 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
