Iran's annual petrochemical production capacity increased by 13.5 million tons in the last fiscal year that ended on March 20.
The National Petrochemical Company’s annual output was 70 million tons in the previous year and has now reached 83.5 million tons, IRNA reported.
Eleven petrochemical projects have become operational in the period to help raise output by 20%.
Referring to completed plans, the state news agency said the second phase of Takht-e-Jamshid Petrochemical Plant in Mahshahr, Khuzestan Province, was the first to open in 2020.
Built by Iranian engineers, it has an annual capacity of 85,000 tons of polybutadiene rubber which is a polymer with high resistance to damage from normal wear and tear and is used in downstream industries to produce rubber items, especially tires. The project helped Iran’s tire and rubber industries reduce imports of some types of polymer.
To help complete the value chain in the key growing petrochemical sector, Miandoab Petrochemical Complex in West Azarbaijan Province became operational last June.
With annual capacity of 175,000 tons and built over 22 hectares it cost $120 million. The facility converts ethylene to higher value-added products namely heavy polyethylene, linear and light polyethylene.
Two petrochemical companies in southern Bushehr Province, Kaveh Methanol Complex and the first phase of Bushehr Petrochemical Complex also went on stream last year.
Located near the port city of Bandar Dayyer in the Persian Gulf, 120 kilometers west of Asalouyeh, and costing $950 million, the Kaveh unit is the largest of its kind in Iran and one of the biggest in the world with a daily methanol output of 7,000 tons, or 3.2 million tons per annum.
The Bushehr Petrochemical Company is located in Pars Special Economic Energy Zone and has a capacity of 4 million tons a annum, including 1.65 million tons of methanol, 1 million tons of olefins, 550,000 tons of ethylene glycol, 300,000 tons of light and heavy polymers and 300,000 tons of acetic acid.
Regarding the fifth plan, IRNA said the Middle East Kimia Pars Complex cost $600 million. It needs 1.6 billion cubic meters of gas per year to produce 1.6 million tons of methanol. As part of the project, a Danish catalysis company (Holdor Topsoe) provided licensing, catalysts and equipment.
The sixth project was Lorestan Petrochemical Complex that cost $20 million and was built with help from Bakhtar Petrochemical Company. It is designed to manufacture 100,000 tons of catalysts for polyethylene factories.
The ammonia unit of Lordegan Petrochemical Company in western Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province started production last July and is to produce 677,000 tons of ammonia per year. Construction of the urea unit of the plant came online last August with an annual capacity of 100,000 tons.
1,700-km Ethylene Pipeline
The olefin unit of Ilam Petrochemical Complex in western Ilam Province started producing ethylene in 2020, a part of which is supplied to the West Ethylene Pipeline. Annual ethylene capacity of the company is 450,000 tons.
WEP is 1,700 kilometers long and runs from the port city of Asalouyeh off the Persian Gulf in the south to the northwest and supplies ethylene as feedstock to 12 petrochemical factories including in Mahabad, Mahshahr, Andimeshk, Lorestan, Kermanshah, Hamedan, Kurdestan and Miandoab.
The eighth and ninth plans were the potassium sulfate unit of Urmia Petrochem Plant (30 kilometers southwest of the provincial capital Urmia City) and Hegmataneh Petrochemical Plant in Hamedan Province that added 90,000 tons and 45,000 tons to NPC’s annual output, respectively.
The $3.4 billion Persian Gulf Bidboland gas refinery was inaugurated in January in Khuzestan Province to trap associated gas from crude oil production instead of flaring.
This facility has an annual capacity of 10.4 million tons of methane, which will be injected into the national gas grid, 1.5 million tons ethane, 1 million tons propane, 600,000 tons gas condensates and 500,000 tons butane to be fed into petrochemical plants in Mahshahr and Gachsaran to produce close to 3 million tons of products.
To underpin the sustainable supply of feedstock to petrochemical plants, the first phase of a natural gas liquid (NGL) recovery plant became operational in Kangan Petro Refining Company (KPRC) in Bushehr Province in January.
Costing $1 billion, the facility has an annual capacity of 3.5 million and will help complete the value chain and development of the downstream petrochemical sector. Together the plants are expected to generate $25 billion in the current fiscal year.
