Work Begins on Ethylene Pipeline Project in NW

Iran commenced work on a pipeline on Friday to transfer ethylene from Miandoab in West Azarbaijan Province to feed a petrochemical plant in Tabriz, East Azarbaijan Province.

The 154-kilometer pipeline is a stretch of a major project, known as the West Ethylene Pipeline, that runs from the port city of Asalouyeh on the Persian Gulf coast to West Azarbaijan Province in the northwest, supplying ethylene as feedstock to several petrochemical complexes along the way, NIPNA reported.

“With a capacity to transfer 200,000 tons of ethylene per year, the 10-inch diameter Miandoab-Tabriz Pipeline is scheduled to be completed at a cost of 1.46 trillion rials (about $36 million) by the end of this year,” said Siavash Derafshi, chief executive officer of Tabriz Petrochemical Company.

Ethylene is the building block for a vast range of chemicals, from plastics to antifreeze solutions and solvents, and is also used in the agriculture sector for ripening fruits.

The pipeline will help Tabriz Petrochemical Company reach its planned annual output capacity of 1.1 million tons in three years and 1.8 million tons by 2022. With an estimated global output of over 150 million tons in 2016, ethylene is the most commercially produced gaseous compound. It is also produced in nature.

According to reports, RPC and Ghadir Investment Company, a subsidiary of Bank Saderat Iran, will provide funding for the project. Iran also launched this week its first customs administration for petrochemicals. According to Derafshi, the customs office will help cut back on red tape for trucking around 1,300 tons of petrochemicals.

Launched in 1992, TPC’s petrochemical products include raw polymers, polyethylene, polystyrene and various grades of a thermoplastic polymer known as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, or ABS.

   TPC Operations

The lifting of international sanctions last year breathed new life into TPC.

The company boosted exports in 2016 by 67% from the previous year, as the removal of financial and trade barriers helped TPC expand supplies to Europe, Turkey and countries in the CIS region, the company’s own data show. The Italian subsidiary of multinational conglomerate Honeywell has reached an agreement to help upgrade TPC’s monitoring and control technology.

The collaboration is aimed at replacing TPC’s outdated distributed control and emergency shutdown systems with new technology by Honeywell.

Most of Iran’s petrochemical facilities are concentrated in the port cities of Asalouyeh and Mahshahr by the Persian Gulf coast.

The cities produced around 15 million and 13 million tons of petrochemicals respectively in the eight months between March and November, accounting for nearly 80% of Iran’s petrochemical output.

However, in the last few decades, new petrochemical plants have come on stream in Iran, particularly across the country’s western belt, as part of efforts to boost local economies.