Operations started on Monday to construct a petrochemical complex in Mahshahr, Khuzestan Province, whose main product would be propylene, a building block for a large number of chemicals.
“Kourosh Petrochemical Plant is designed to produce 150,000 tons of propylene and its derivatives per annum,” Seyyed Omid Shahidinia, managing director of Mahshahr Special Petrochemical Economic Zone, was quoted as saying by NIPNA, NPC’s official news agency.
"The plant will be completed in 40 months at a cost of $190 million and will create 700 jobs in the construction phase and 200 jobs after its launch."
The complex will be built in an area of 10 hectares, or about 100,000 square meters.
According to Shahidinia, 27 other petrochemical ventures are currently underway in Mahshahr, which have made 7-90% progress.
“With an investment of $1.5 billion, these projects will become operational in the next several years and significantly increase Mahshahr petrochemical output," he said.
The official underscored that a barrier facing petrochemical development in Mahshahr is allocation of land, hoping that the expanding Mahshahr petrochemical zone will address the issue.
“By expanding the zone, the second wave of petrochemical development will commence, which is aimed at adding 7-8 million tons of petrochemical production to the annual nominal capacity,” he said.
The country's petrochemical output capacity currently stands at around 60 million tons. Tehran hopes to attract billions of dollars in foreign finance to more than double that capacity by 2022, the end of its Sixth Five-Year Economic Development Plan.
"Between 60 and 70 downstream petrochemical projects are ready to be handed over to investors," Shahidinia said without elaboration.
International firms like Royal Dutch Shell, France's Total, BASF, LINDE as well as Chinese and Japanese investors seek a stake in Iran's petrochemical market.
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