A working group comprising representatives of the National Petrochemical Company (NPC)'s general assembly will be set up to determine transfer, repair, and maintenance of the West Ethylene pipeline, deputy oil minister announced Tuesday.
The committee, to be established using NPC's resources, is required to decide on how and to whom should the pipeline be transferred, and who is going to be in charge of the repair and maintenance of the part of pipeline stretching from Siah-Makan to Gachsaran, Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh was quoted by Shana news agency as saying. The project is likely to be handed over to the private sector, he noted.
It will also deal with the remaining part of the pipeline to be constructed in the third phase, as well as pipe-laying operations in Dena region, located in west and southwest of the country.
The NPC is not able to carry out the project, due to lack of funding, said deputy oil minister Abbas Shari-Moqaddam, adding that phase one and two of the project will be carried out before yearend. The project is 77 percent complete. Completion of the project is projected to cost $723 million, according to Shari-Moqaddam, who is also the NPC managing director.
The decisions made by the committee equals to that of the NPC's general assembly.
Having acquired the property rights from the owners whose land would be crossed by the pipeline, Construction of the West Ethylene pipeline has recommenced.
Several petrochemical complexes requested to join the West Ethylene pipeline to provide feedstock, among which Dehloran, Ilam, Ardebil, and Tabriz petrochemical complexes have recently obtained permission to use the pipeline.
The 2,648 km West Ethylene pipeline is designed to transport ethylene from the Pars Special Economic Energy Zone situated in Assalouyeh to petrochemical complexes in western province of Kermanshah.
