Iran MPs urge government to control petrochemical industry

Hadi Beiginejad, a member of Parliament’s Energy Commission, said the lawmakers sent a letter to President Ebrahim Raisi to this effect.

Beiginejad noted that the petrochemical industry produces many products in Iran and the value of its products is equal to crude oil, saying, “If we sell each ton of crude oil for $500, the sales value of petrochemical products is about the same and this almost shows that we are selling raw materials.”

Beiginejad added that for this reason, Iran needs to design a strategy in the field of petrochemicals to determine where it wants to go in the future, what materials it needs to produce and where the Iranian government stands in this industry.

He maintained, “Petrochemical complexes have been in the hands of the government in recent years, many of which have been handed over to the private sector and some have remained as public sector, but we have not sold these petrochemicals to private individuals, but to a government that does not control the industry, and this has weakened the petrochemical organization in recent years.”