Iranian government has announced its five-year development plan

Iran’s 6th five-year development plan (2016-2021) has envisaged construction of 15 new petrochemical plants across the country.

Requiring $19 bln in investments, the plants are expected to add 30 million tons of petrochemical products to the country’s production capacity. 
The plants are being developed with the aim of weaning the country’s economy off oil dollars and producing value-added products.
There are 60 unfinished petrochemical projects with various levels of physical progress from 1 to 98 percent in Iran. 
Delayed projects have been classified based on their physical progress of which 15 projects with more than 60 percent physical progress have been classified as prioritized projects for investment and completion. 
The completion of halfway projects is estimated to raise the annual petrochemical production capacity of the country from the current 60 million tons to over 120 million tons a year.
 Iran’s current petrochemical production capacity stands at 60 million tons a year and the country’s total production capacity will hit 180 mt/y by 2022 once tens of major petrochemical projects come online by that time.
 Most of Iran’s petrochemical plants are being fed by the gas that comes from the joint South Pars gas field in Persian Gulf waters. 
South Pars contains 40 trillion cubic meters (tcm) of natural gas. It covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which are in Iran’s territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. The remaining 6,000 square kilometers are situated in Qatar’s territorial waters.
The gas field is estimated to contain about eight percent of the world’s reserves, and approximately 18 billion barrels of condensate.
The main phase of South Pars gas field came on-stream in March, increasing Iran’s gas production by 100 mcm/d.