The NPC held a ceremony to commemorate the birthday of Imam Ali, the
first Shia Muslim leader and a revered figure in Iran, with the participation
of Morteza Shahmirzaei, the deputy oil minister and NPC chief, board members
and staff, the NIPNA news agency said.
Shahmirzaei congratulated the occasion and praised the virtues of Imam
Ali, saying: "We should follow his example of hard work and struggle in
life and in the path of elevating Islam."
He added that the employees of Iran's petrochemical industry should
put all their efforts into developing and advancing this valuable industry by
following the model of Imam Ali's constant endeavors.
Shahmirzaei said that using the existing capacities and benefiting
from the knowledge and technologies of the world could smooth the way for the
development of Iran's petrochemical industry.
He said that maximizing the use of the potential of domestic producers
and manufacturers to transfer technical knowledge, localize and develop new
technologies could lead to the realization of the plans made for the
development of the country's petrochemical industry.
Iran has been trying to boost its petrochemical output and exports as
a way to cope with the U.S. sanctions that have crippled its oil industry. The
NPC aims to increase the annual production capacity of the petrochemical sector
to 100 million tonnes by 2022 and to 130 million tonnes by 2025.