Construction of Dena Petrochemical Complex in Asalouyeh, southern Bushehr Province, has registered 65% progress and is expected to be completed in early 2023 if the required funds are available on time, managing director of the project said.
“The project needs $178 million from the National Development Fund of Iran. If the money is available the plant will open by March 2023," Abolqasem Sharifi was quoted as saying by the Oil Ministry news agency Shana.
Built on seven hectares in the Pars Special Economic Zone, Dena Petrochemical Plant is designed to produce 1.65 million tons of methanol per annum. Equipment and machinery are being manufactured by domestic companies.
“Despite the coronavirus outbreak, work is making progress but with delays,” Sharifi said, hoping that the job can be done in about 30 months.
Health authorities in Tehran confirmed 570,000 coronavirus cases and almost 33,000 dead by Monday afternoon. The total number of people worldwide who have tested positive for the deadly virus has exceeded 43 million and counting with at least 1.15 million deaths.
Sepehr Energy Corporation (SECo) is carrying out the petrochemical project along with the construction of two other methanol plants, namely Sabalan Petrochemical Plant in Asalouyeh and Siraf Methanol Plant in Dayyer County, Bushehr, both with a capacity to produce 1.65 million tons of methanol.
Data from the National Petrochemical Company show Iran accounts for 5% of the world's total methanol production with exports to Iraq, China, the UAE, India and South Korea.
China is the world's largest methanol importer. It has major methanol-to-olefins capacity and imported 10 million tons of methanol in 2019. Iran is the largest exporter of methanol to the Asian economic giant supplying about 40% of its annual imports.
In the petrochemical industry methanol is used to create high-quality basic chemicals, the most important of which are formaldehyde, acetic acid, MTBE, methyl methacrylate, methyl chloride and methylamines, which are processed to produce other derivatives.
With the launch of new methanol plants, net methanol output capacity has doubled in two years reaching about 12.2 million tons a year.
The global methanol market is expected grow at a significant rate in the coming years, driven mainly by the increasing use of methanol (in the form of fuel and antifreeze agent) in the autoe industry. The methanol industry has experienced an explosive growth, primarily in China and the United States, owing to significant developments in shale gas.
