TEHRAN: Iran is investing more than $5 billion in nine major petrochemical projects which will be completed during the 2010-11 year, a senior official said in remarks published on Monday. Abdolhossein Bayat, head of the National Petrochemical Company (NPC), said the facilities would boost output capacity by 10.5 million tons and create 3,000 new jobs, the semi-official Mehr News Agency reported. The investments include chlorine and PVC units in the Alvand petrochemical plant, a heavy polyethylene unit in the Amir Kabir plant as well as polymer production projects in the Kermanshah and Fajr plants. "The volume of investment in the projects under way stand at $5.2 billion with a production capacity of 10.5 million tons," said Bayat, who is also a deputy oil minister. Iran's petrochemical industry production was expected to increase to 44 million tons in the Iranian year that ends next March, from 34 million tons in the previous year. Iran, which is under UN and US sanctions over its disputed nuclear program, is the world's fifth-largest crude exporter.
