Construction of 70 Petrochemical projects underway

Qassemi made the remarks on Wednesday, and added, "This year, foreign credit lines will be used for the completion of 20 petrochemical projects." Qassemi had earlier this year announced that China plans to invest in 20 petrochemical projects in Iran, lauding the country's advancement in petrochemical fields. "Today most petrochemical projects have yielded fruits and more than 70 projects are now in need of financial support. Help can be offered to the industry through the National Development Fund or foreign credits," Rostam Qassemi said, addressing a conference on the promotion of the petrochemical industry in March. "Based on the latest agreements, Chinese investors intend to use such credit line for investing in 20 petrochemical projects in Iran," Qassemi said, expressing the hope that the projects would yield result sooner than the declared timeline. Meantime, Iranian Deputy Oil Minister for Petrochemicals, Abdolhosain Bayat said yesterday that $50bln will be invested in the petrochemical industry over the fifth five year plan up to 2015, half of it in the Southern Bushehr province. China and Western Europe are the main destinations of Iran's petrochemical exports followed by South East Asia, Far East, the Middle East, Indian Subcontinent, Latin America and other countries. Last year Iran exported 16.2mln tons of various petrochemical products to 60 countries around the world. While last year's revenue from petrochemical exports hit $10.4bln, the figure is estimated to stand at around $14bln this year.