They are oil-rich but lag of capital and human capital

I know that plastic comes from oil, but why isn't it the dominant export of any other oil rich nation? It may not be a coincidence that Iran also suffers from significant sanctions.

k00b

Plastics are made from oil. The "just stop oil" movement would take a big hit if people realised than oil is everywhere, not just as energy source but also most materials, food, medicines...

wingalt

The world is running on oil

TomK

It’s weird to see Iran mostly exporting plastic when it has so much oil. I imagine the distortion is sanction related.