Speaking in a televised interview Monday night, the official said,
"Provided that all enough foreign finances are procured by the end of the plan,
Iran's annual petrochemical revenues will reach $40b."
Zangeneh said Iran's petrochemical revenues stood at only 1 billion
dollar in 1997 which is expected to cross 40 billion dollars by 2022.
Asked when the country will stop selling crude oil, he said only 4 to
5 percent of crude oil can be consumed for petrochemical purposes and the rest
must be used as fuel and in refineries which makes it impossible for weaning
the economy of selling crude oil and gas.
Regarding development of South Pars phases, the official said, except for phase 11 which is being developed by a consortium
of Total, CNPC and Petropars under a 40-month contract, all
phases of the gas field will come online by the next two years.
He said, "Once Iran launches phase 27 of the giant
offshore gas fields, the country will be producing 700 million cubic meters a
day of gas from the field which is way over that of Qatar."