a down-up plan to develop downstream sector of petrochemical industry, with a case study on iran’s south pars zone

Establishment of downstream sector in petrochemical industry has been concerned by developing countries with large oil and gas resources, however it requires contribution of smes to institute industrial clusters and federal supports. although by a federal management and investment, the upstream sector may be expanded, it is rarely addressed to be successful, if contributing directly in the downstream sector. iran’s south pars zone takes advantage of having large petrochemical complexes for production of base products, however the value chain seems incomplete, due to no development of the downstream sector.in this paper, instead of construction of industrial plants, related to the next products after the base petrochemicals (usual federal plans), it is proposed to develop the smes, to manufacture some end-use products based on the available base petrochemicals in the region, so it is aimed to establish the vacant businesses related to midstream sector through a sequential and sustainable progress. sme: small and medium sized enterprise