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Iran’s methanol output to more than double in 2025

File photo shows a view to installations at Kaveh methanol plant in the southern Iranian port city of Dayyer on the Persian Gulf.

Iran’s output of methanol in expected to increase by more than a double as the country seeks to capture nearly a half of the global market for the highly-strategic product by 2025.

Behzad Mohammadi, a deputy Iranian oil minister said on Thursday that methanol output will reach a target of 23 million metric tons per annum (mtpa) by 2025.

Iran’s current output capacity for methanol is around 12 mtpa, said Mohammadi, adding that nearly 80 percent of the capacity is currently active.

The official, who heads the National Petrochemical Company (NPC), said that Iran consumes less than six percent of its methanol output inside the country and the rest is exported to generate some $2 billion in foreign currency revenues for the government.

Mohammadi added that Iran will need to provide over 150 million cubic meters of gas per day as feedstock for petrochemical plants in 2025 to be able to meet the target of 23 mtpa in methanol output.

He said Iran would gain a dominant share or around 45 percent of the global trade for methanol in 2025.  

NPC chief said China, the largest producer and one of the largest importers of methanol in the world, will remain the top buyer of Iranian methanol in the upcoming years with estimates suggesting that Iran will supply nearly a fourth of China’s total demand for the product, or around 13 mtpa, in 2024.

However, Mohammadi insisted that Iran should seek to reduce the exports and use the strategic raw material inside the country to manufacture products with higher added value.

Iranian authorities said last year that researchers had obtained the know-how to turn methanol to propylene, a technology known as MTP which was previously exclusive to companies in only two Western countries.   


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