Hassan Abbaszadeh, Iran’s deputy petroleum minister and managing
director of the National Petrochemical Company (NPC), said the industry has
evolved over more than six decades from meeting domestic needs to becoming a
major source of non-oil exports and foreign currency earnings.
Speaking in an interview marking Iran’s Petrochemical Industry Day,
Abbaszadeh said the sector’s future strategy prioritises moving beyond
volume-driven growth toward completing the value chain and producing more
advanced downstream products.
“Iran’s petrochemical industry is now a mature, 60-year-old sector
that plays a key role in exports, job creation and industrial growth,” he said,
adding that a comprehensive value-chain development plan has been prepared to
guide private investment.
Iran ranks second in the Middle East petrochemical market with about a
30% regional share, behind Saudi Arabia’s 42%, Abbaszadeh said. Iran accounts
for roughly 3% of global petrochemical production, despite holding some of the
world’s largest hydrocarbon reserves.
He said sanctions and geopolitical pressures had limited Iran’s
international footprint, describing the lack of overseas petrochemical
investments as a missed opportunity. Abbaszadeh said Iran should still pursue
foreign partnerships and projects when conditions allow, citing past attempts
to acquire assets abroad that were ultimately blocked.
A central pillar of Iran’s strategy under its seventh development plan
is boosting value-added output by reducing exports of mid-chain products and
expanding downstream manufacturing. Abbaszadeh said Iran currently imports
about $2 billion worth of products that could be produced domestically with
targeted investment.
One of the industry’s biggest challenges remains securing stable
feedstock supplies, particularly natural gas, as winter demand from households
often curtails deliveries to petrochemical plants. Abbaszadeh said the issue
stems from inefficient energy consumption rather than resource scarcity.
To address this, Iran’s petrochemical sector is investing in flare gas
recovery, energy efficiency programmes, gas field development and renewable
power. Abbaszadeh said flare gas projects alone are expected to supply up to
1.5 billion cubic feet of gas per day by next year.
The sector is also investing in solar and wind power to reduce gas use
in electricity generation, with one company targeting 2,500 megawatts of
renewable capacity, about 1,000 megawatts of which is expected to come online
by year-end.
Looking ahead, Abbaszadeh said Iran plans to shift toward integrated
refinery-petrochemical complexes, aiming for new refineries to allocate at least
30% of output to petrochemical products, compared with less than 3% currently.
Globally, that share typically reaches 65–70%, he said.
Abbaszadeh urged the public to reduce energy waste, saying
petrochemicals are largely owned by public pension funds and their
sustainability directly affects employment and economic stability.
“Optimising energy consumption helps protect production, jobs and
foreign exchange earnings,” he said.