Iran says investment in petrochemical industry ＂profitable＂

Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said investment in Iran's petrochemical industry is profitable, Tehran Times daily reported on Tuesday.

There are profitable investment opportunities in Iran, but the petrochemical sector is certainly the most advantageous of all, Qasemi was quoted as saying.

"National Iranian Petrochemical Company welcomes both domestic and foreign investments," Qasemi said on the sidelines of an ongoing conference on petrochemical industry in Iran's capital Tehran on Monday.

On Sunday, Ramezan Oladi, an official from the National Iranian Petrochemical Industries Company, said Iran will increase its share in the Middle East's petrochemical output to 38 percent from the current 24 percent by 2015, according to the report.

Iran's Deputy Oil Minister Abdolhossein Bayat said recently that Iran exported petrochemical products worth of some 12 billion U.S. dollars in the past Iranian calendar year which ended on March 20.

Iran's petrochemical products last year were exported to around 60 countries across the world, including the Far East, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa.