An Iranian deputy oil minister said Iran is resolved to increase its revenues from exporting petrochemicals, and announced that four new petrochemical plants are scheduled to go into operation in the current Iranian year calendar (started March21). Iranian Deputy Oil Minister for Petrochemical Affairs Abbas She’ri Moqaddam said that the completion and construction of development projects are among the main priorities of Iran’s National Petrochemical Company (NPC), and therefore four petrochemical plants will come on stream this year. He further stated that the second phase of Kavian Petrochemical Complex in Iran’s Southern province of Bushehr, as well as petrochemical complexes of Lorestan, Kordestan and Mahabad will be operational by the end of the current Iranian calendar year. Earlier this month, Director for Planning and Development Department of National Iranian Petrochemical Company (NIPC) Hossein Shahriyari told reporters that Iran plans to increase its petrochemical exports considerably in the current Iranian year as sanctions against the Islamic Republic are eased in the wake of an interim nuclear deal between Tehran and the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, France and Britain plus Germany). "Iran will increase the value of its petrochemical exports to the level of $12 billion," Shahriyari said. He reiterated that Iran’s petrochemical sector enjoys ample opportunities that could be seized once the capital necessary for its development projects are provided. “In recent years, the domestic sales of petrochemical products have increased considerably, and with the implementation of the new development projects, the petrochemicals production capacity will rise significantly,” Shahriyari said. Iran has trade transactions with over 105 world countries. Last year, former Iranian Economy Minister Seyed Shamseddin Hosseini said that Iran’s non-oil exports witnessed an eye-catching growth in the last Iranian year (ended March 20, 2013) despite the sanctions and restrictions imposed by the West on Tehran. “The value of the country’s non-oil goods exported last year hit $41.3bln,” the Iranian economy minister said, addressing a conference on monetary policy of global economy. He noted that the figure shows an increase as compared with last year due to growth in tourism sector and exports of agricultural and mineral products. “The non-oil export deficit reduced to $12.3bln last year from the previous figure of $18bln,” Hosseini said.