The decade (February 1-10) is literally translated as the dawning of new age, and is a ten-day celebration of Imam Khomeini’s return to Iran in 1979.
Speaking to NIPNA, Shahdaei said the projects planned to come online by February are the MEG unit of Morvarid Petrochemical Plant, Entekhab Petrochemical Plant with 250,000 tons/year of capacity for polyethylene production, Takhte-Jamshid Petrochemical Plant with 50,000 tons/year of polystyrene production capacity and phase II of Kavian Petrochemical Plant which will add a million tons to the facility's ethylene output annually.
Shahdaei, who is also deputy petroleum minister in petrochemical affairs, said phase III of the urea and ammonia unit of Pardis Petrochemical Plant and phase III and polyethylene unit of Kurdistan Petrochemical Complex will also become operational by the end of the current Iranian calendar year to March 21 2017.
She said NPC has so far inked cooperation documents with Japan's Sujitz, France's Total and Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell companies for developing petrochemical projects in Iran.
The official further said that NPC is in talks with three European companies for investment in petrochemical projects.
Iran currently has a capacity to produce 60 million tons of petrochemicals, which is expected to expand to 180 million tons in the coming years as a number of projects are coming on stream.
Officials say the country is on course to earn as much as $70 billion per year once the projects start production.