Iran's National Petrochemical Company (NPC) has stated that it plans to launch 12 new petrochemical projects by March 2009.

According to the latest figures set out by the country's Oil Ministry, it intends to increase annual production levels of ethylene to 12 million tonnes, with 8.5 million tons of urea, four million tons of aromatics and ten million tons of polymer also to be produced on a yearly basis by 2015.

In order to achieve this, the managing director of NPC has outlined plans to construct the new plants over the coming months in line with the country's Fifth Development Plan, which began in March 2005.

"Twelve petrochemical projects, valued at 4.793 million dollars, are to be inaugurated in the current year," Gholam-Hossein Nejabat confirmed, speaking to the Mehr News Agency.

Among the initiatives to be launched prior to next March will be the first phase of the Isocyanate Project, the Vinyl Chloride and PVC Project, the Butadiene Project and the Centralised Utility Project.

Mr Nejabat added that Iran is currently working to become the Middle East's largest producer of ethylene and urea in addition to the largest producer of methanol in the world.