Iran Starts Preparing Next Five-Year Plan

Iran's NPC (Tehran), has been given the go-ahead to start preparing its 6th Five-Year Plan for submission to government and Iran's oil ministry in around six months from now. Iranian deputy oil minister and NPC president M. Bayat is expected to focus on investment at Qheshen free zone south of Assaluyeh, current location of 13 ethylene crackers based on the Pars gas field, according to delegates from Iran at the EPCA annual meeting in Budapest.

Part-privatization has helped the commercial arm of NPC, Petrochemical Commerce Co (PCC; Tehran) improve its production and exports, according to M. Moghadam, head of market research and planning at PCC.

In the first part of this Iranian year, from March 21 to date, exports of petrochemicals rose 35% on the year-ago level, to 7.7 million m.t. These products were valued at $4.6 billion, up 56% on the year earlier figure, partly due to higher prices but also thanks to increased production volumes.