Kermanshah Petrochemical Industries Company’s development program will get a fresh impetus with €287 million in loans.
Mohsen Rostami, the head of Industries, Mining and Trade Organization of Kermanshah Province, said the government has approved the loan from the sovereign wealth fund, the National Development Fund of Iran, to complete the remaining phases of urea and ammonium plants of the company based in Ilam, ISNA reported on Wednesday.
"In addition to the forex loan, the company will be given 1 trillion rials (€6 million) in the next few days," he added.
The project, which will create 700 jobs, needs €400 million in funding, and the official did not say from what source the rest of the money will be made available.
“The project has registered 30% work-in-progress and the permits to expand the plant’s second phase have been issued,” Rostami noted, adding that German petrochemical giants, namely Basel, TIB Chemical and the Dutch Stamicarbon petrochemical firm, have expressed readiness to help the company with technical knowhow and expertise.
Regarding output, he said implementation of the second phase of the complex will raise annual production capacity of ammonia and urea by 685,000 tons, reaching 1million tons per annum.
One of the key advantages of the complex is its proximity to the growing Iraqi and Turkish urea markets.
Asked about feedstock for the plant, he said the complex requires 560 million cubic meters of natural gas per annum that is supplied by the cross-country pipeline, aka Iran Gas Trunkline.
The complex has an installed annual production capacity of 396,000 tons of ammonia and urea.
KPIC was founded in 1996 and operates as a subsidiary of Parsian Oil and Gas Development Co. It produces ammonia and urea for the chemical fertilizer industry.
Iran earned $9.55 billion from petrochemical exports last year, official data show. Petrochemicals were mostly destined for Asia, Europe and South America.
According to Shana, petrochemical output reached 27.3 million tons in the first six months of the current fiscal ending in September and generated $6.3 billion in export revenues.
Production capacity of 56 major petrochemical complexes, located mostly in Mahshahr (Khuzestan Province) and Asalouyeh (Bushehr Province), is forecast to reach 62 million tons by next March.
Petrochemical is Iran’s most important industry after oil and gas. State-owned National Petrochemical Company hopes to lift annual output to 120 million tons by 2022, the end of the Sixth Five-Year Economic Development Plan.
