The annual ethylene injection to West Ethylene Pipeline is expected to reach 3.5 million tons in four years, in which case petrochemical companies will have enough feedstock to produce value-added products worth $3.7 billion annually.
Behzad Mohammadi, managing director of the National Petrochemical Company, made the statement in a ceremony to sign a contract with Oil Industries' Commissioning and Operation Company, based on which the private sector firm was assigned the operation, maintenance and repair works of West Ethylene Pipeline, the Oil Ministry’s news portal Shana reported.
The deal was signed by Jalal Mirhashemi, director of NPC’s Production Control Department, and Manouchehr Taheri, the head of OICOC, in Tehran on Sunday.
“The current injection capacity stands at 2 million tons per annum that will rise by 75% to reach 3.5 million tons in 2025,” he said.
“Extending from the port city of Asalouyeh off the Persian Gulf in the south to the northwest, WEP is a 2,800-kilometer pipeline that supplies ethylene as feedstock to 13 petrochemical factories for producing value-added goods worth $2 billion per year.”
According to the official, the pipeline, which was inaugurated in 2012 and developed gradually, is equipped with six pumping stations and has so far carried 11 million tons of ethylene from Bushehr Province to petrochem factories in western provinces.
Mirhashemi noted that as ethylene injection capacity to the pipeline is increasing, the number of petrochem companies linked to it will also increase to 21 in 2025.
Established in 2011, OICOC handles commissioning and startup operation, maintenance and training courses for oil, gas and petrochemical industries.
Ethylene is a petrochemical-derived monomer used in countless products, including fibers and plastics, in addition to the production of organic chemicals. Iran’s annual output of ethylene is about 7.3 million tons.
Value Chain
Amir Vakilzadeh, director of projects at NPC, said the company has plans to complete the value chain of petrochemical products and help curb oil export.
“Nineteen projects will come on stream by the end of the next Iranian year in March and several more are to be completed by 2025,” he said.
Of the total petrochemical projects, almost 60% are in Asalouyeh and Mahshahr, and the rest is in other regions.
By March 2022, NPC’s annual petrochemical output is expected to reach 100 million tons from 90 million tons at present, and 133 million tons worth $37 billion by 2025.
Outlining plans of the key industry in three categories, he said, "The first includes three mega-projects that will use mixed feedstock. In the second are methanol to propylene conversion projects in the northern and southern coasts to augment propylene production.”
Vakilzadeh noted that the third includes 22 projects will provide feedstock to the downstream sector and expand added value.
“An estimated $3 billion are needed for projects that would produce goods worth $11 billion,” he added.
Methanol, for example, is currently priced at around $200-300 per ton, but turning it into value-added products raises its price to $1,500/ton.
Three projects are underway in Asalouyeh in the south to convert methanol to propylene for the downstream industries.
Propylene is a key item that can be transformed into value-added products like polypropylene and create jobs in the downstream petrochemical sector.
“Last year, about $2 billion were spent to import 1.3 million tons of petrochemicals,” Vakilzadeh said, adding that the figure will be reduced by up to 70% when the aforementioned projects come on stream.
Projects to collect associated petroleum gas as well as ethane recovery projects will come on stream next year to underpin the sustainable supply of feedstock to petrochemical plants.
One of the major projects of NPC is the construction of a gas-to-polypropylene plant in Eslamabad-e-Gharb County, Kermanshah Province.
The project, which is expected to be complete in five years, will lead to the production of goods with local know-how, in which NPC previously depended on foreign companies.
