Iran proposes petrochemical forum

Iran has limitedly proposed to international bodies the creation of a global forum for exporters of petrochemical products, Iran’s deputy oil minister says.

“The formation of the Petrochemical Exporting Countries Forum (PECF) will bring a new order to the market of petrochemical products and create coordination among exporters,” the Managing Director of National Iranian Petrochemical Company, (NIPC) Abdolhossein Bayat, told Iran’s Petroenergy Information Network on Friday.

He added that Iran, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Russia, Qatar, and Turkey are potential members of PECF which will concentrate on financial and technological cooperation among members, as well as product pricing and policy making in production issues.

Bayat said the proposal regarding the formation of PECF will be submitted after the issue is studied.

In recent years NIPC has succeeded in producing a wide range of petrochemicals and increasing its the quality of production.

Today, the company is the second largest producer and exporter of petrochemicals in the Middle East. Over these years, it has not only expanded the range and volume of its products, but it has also taken steps in areas such as R&D to achieve further self-sufficiency.

Iran hopes to implement 47 petrochemical projects by the end of the Fifth Five-Year Economic Development Plan in 2015, adding a total of 43 million tons per year to its capacity. Iran will represent at least 5.3 percent of global petrochemical output and 36 percent of Middle Eastern production once those projects come online.