Iran has bought 12 new tankers for increasing exports of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to its Asian customers, the Mehr News Agency reported. The tankers are both new and second hand and have been bought by the private sector, aimed at stabilizing Iran's LPG exports under the condition when the West has imposed sanctions on the country's oil industry. By inaugurating new oil and gas projects, Iran's LPG output amounted to 6,500 tons in the last Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 20, 2013. While stopping LPG imports, Iran exported the product to South Korea, China and some other Southeast Asian countries in the past Iranian year. Iran halted LPG transit via the Caspian Sea countries, especially Turkmenistan and also Iraq, in order to maintain its LPG export markets.

Despite a drop in Iran's oil exports since the beginning of the current Iranian year, over 200,000 barrels of LPG have been exported from the country, according to the statistics released by international institutes. Iran exported $8.116 billion worth of petrochemical products in the first nine months of the current Iranian calendar year, which began on March 21, according to the latest report released by the Iranian Customs Administration. The value of Iran's annual petrochemical output may double to $40 billion, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said in September. For the time being, the value of domestic petrochemical products per year is about $20 billion, he said, hoping that the figure would increase to $40 billion. (Source: Tehran Times)