About $13.7 billion have been invested in the construction of Mokran Petrochemical Complex in Chabahar, Sistan-Baluchestan Province, managing director of Negin Mokran Petrochemical Development Company said.
“It will create employment for thousands of people when it is fully operational in 10 years,” Alireza Moniri Abyaneh was also quoted as saying by the National Petrochemical Company’s news service Nipna.
The petrochemical complex is being built on over 1,200 hectares, 20 km from Chabahar and 35 km from Shahid Beheshti Port, he added.
Moniri noted that with the completion of the first phase of the project, which includes five propylene units, one ammonia and urea unit, and one LNG unit, more than 12,000 people will be employed in the complex.
“All the units will be supplied with methane gas delivered via a pipeline from Iranshahr and have a production capacity of 8.5 million tons of various products per annum,” he said.
Portions of the output will serve as feedstock for petrochemical companies and downstream industries, and the rest will be exported.
The construction of 18 production units has been planned in the complex. After completion, Chabahar in southeast Iran will become Iran’s third petrochemical hub after Mahshahr in the southwest and Asalouyeh in the south.
The petrochemical complex will help improve the economy of the underdeveloped Sistan-Baluchestan and Hormozgan provinces.
Twenty hectares in Shahid Beheshti Port has been considered for the construction of a terminal to transport products.
Iran's massive crude oil and natural gas reserves have contributed to economic development in the southwestern regions off the Persian Gulf, but areas bordering the Oman Sea have hardly benefited from the wealth.
Stretching along the Oman Sea, the Mokran region has not developed into the expected trade and shipping center, save for the port city of Jask that is operating as an oil and gas terminal.
New oil loading facilities on the Mokran coast will significantly reduce shipping costs and spare lengthy voyage through the Strait of Hormoz and all the way to Iran's main oil and gas terminals in Asalouyeh, Kharg Island and Mahshahr on the westernmost side of the Persian Gulf.
