Following the funding of a petrochemical complex in the southern city of Masjed Soleiman, Chinese financers have opened a second line of credit worth €1.9 billion ($2.1 billion) to finance Bushehr Petrochemical Complex in Bushehr Province.
Gholamreza Mostajabolda’veh, managing director of Bushehr Petrochemical Company, told Mehr News Agency that the finance is currently being used by the company to construct the underway project.
Upon completion, Bushehr Petrochemical Complex will have an annual production capacity of 3 million tons of a wide range of petrochemical products, including 1.65 million tons of methanol, 1 million tons of olefins, 550,000 tons of ethylene glycol, 300,000 tons of light and heavy polymers and 300,000 tons of acetic acid.
The complex’s gas sweetening unit will treat over 9 million cubic meters of natural gas per day.
“The first phase of the complex, which includes methanol and utility units, has made more than 60% progress and will go on stream until the end of the current Iranian year [started March 20],” Mostajabolda’veh said.
The official also noted that the engineering processes of the complex’s second phase, pertaining to the production of polyethylene, ethylene glycol and olefins, will soon be finalized.
“The second phase has so far made 10% progress and is currently in the stage of purchasing equipments,” he added.
The project includes a third phase, which is allocated to the production of acetic acid and vinyl acetate monomer.
According to Mostajabolda’veh, all phases of the project will become operational in three years.
Hamid-Reza Rostami, director of planning at National Petrochemical Complex, recently said 21 new petrochemical plans have been introduced to be financed by China’s line of credit, but only one LOC has until now been opened for one of the projects.
This is while petrochemical officials have earlier announced that funds for four petrochemical plans have been provided by China and following the approval of the Central Bank of Iran and the opening of an LOC in the near future, it will be paid.
According to the sixth five-year development plan (2016-21), Iran’s 62 million tons of petrochemical capacity will experience a 100% increase and earn $40 billion annually.
Plans call for a $28-30 billion in investment to develop the petrochemical industry, of which $11.5 billion are expected to come from foreign investors.
