Ten petrochemical projects are underway and expected to be completed by 2022 to boost output to 100 million tons a year from the current 90 million tons, the oil minister said.
Addressing a virtual ceremony to inaugurate three petrochemical projects on Thursday, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said: “Forty petrochemical projects are under construction and annual output will reach 133 million tons in six years,” the Oil Ministry news agency Shana quoted him as saying.
“In the past eight years 32 plants with 34 million tons output have been launched and petrochemical output capacity has increased from 56 million tons in 2013 to 90 million tons now,” he added.
Over the past year petrochemical production grew by 38% that was unprecedented in the history of the key industry, the minister noted.
Last year 11 petrochemical plants were inaugurated, which resulted in a 10% rise in production and helped increase exports by 13%.
The three projects launched at the weekend are Masjed Soleyman Petrochemical Plant in Khuzestan Province, Sabalan Petrochemical Plant and Exir Hallal Company in Bushehr Province. Costing $1.3 billion the new companies created 2,454 permanent jobs
Masjed Soleyman County in oil-rich Khuzestan is home to the first ever oil exploration in Iran in the early 20th century and the first oil well was drilled there. The county is better known for its history “intertwined with oil industry,” Zanganeh said.
The petrochemical plant, costing $850 million, has an annual capacity of 680,000 tons of ammonia and 1.075 million tons of urea.
Built on 50 hectares in the southwest it is fed with 861 million cubic meters of natural gas a year and is estimated to generate $268 million. Its ammonia unit has been licensed by Switzerland’s Casale company and the urea unit by Japan’s Toyo company.
The main use of ammonia is in the production of fertilizers. It is used directly as a fertilizer and in the production of materials such as ammonium nitrate, ammonium sulfate, urea and other chemical fertilizers.
Iran plans to add 8.4 million tons per year to ammonia output by 2026 by building 21 plants. Urea is mainly used as fertilizer in agriculture and as raw material in other industries.
Urea output is planned to reach 14.7 million tons per annum from 5 million tons now after the launch of nine petrochemical plants.
Methanol Plant in Asalouyeh
Regarding The Sabalan Petrochemical Plant launched in Asalouyeh, Bushehr Province, Zanganeh said it will produce 1.65 million tons of methanol a year. A supplier of AA grade methanol, the plant cost $406 million. It uses one million tons of gas per year as feedstock and is expected to generate $412 million.
National Petrochemical Company data show Iran accounts for 5% of the world's total methanol production with exports to Iraq, China, the UAE, India and South Korea.
With the launch of new methanol plants output doubled in two years reaching about 12.2 million tons a year.
Pentane, Hexane Production
Exir Hallal, the first pentane and hexane production plant in Iran, was also inaugurated in Asalouyeh and is designed to produce 50,000 tons of liquid hydrocarbons.
It will produce 40,000 tons of hexane and 10,000 tons of pentane a year with sales reaching $40 million per annum.
The unit cost $48 million and needs 260,000 tons of raffinate to produce pentane and hexane.
Hexane is used in heavy polyethylene production units with slurry system, oil extraction, pharmaceutical and industrial units.
Pentane is used in petrochemical industry as a blowing agent in expanded polystyrene, insecticides and detergent industries. With the new plant Iran has become self-sufficient in hexane and pentane. The company is designed to eliminate the missing link in the petrochemical industry for polyethylene and polystyrene solvents Iran had to import from other countries.
