A part of the West Ethylene Pipeline, which was damaged by heavy rains and landslides in Kermanshah Province, will be repaired and come online by the end of the week, the director of production control at the National Petrochemical Company said.
“Restoration work on other damaged parts of the pipeline is underway and efforts are being made to resume ethylene flow in the pipeline as soon as possible,” NPC news website NIPNA quoted Qodratollah Farajpour as saying.
Since March 19 most provinces have been hit by severe rainfall and flooding that resulted in colossal damage to homes, farmlands, schools, roads, bridges and other infrastructure. The rare natural disaster claimed the lives of over 80, injured hundreds others and displaced tens of thousands.
Damages to the pipeline were inflicted almost three weeks ago, but repairs were delayed largely due to the extremely bad weather.
The damaged pipeline means feedstock (ethylene) is stuck in onshore tanks unable to reach petrochemical companies.
“All the necessary measures will be taken to prevent more damage to the pipeline before the beginning of the rainy season in the second half of the year,” Farajpour was quoted as saying.
West Ethylene Pipeline delivers ethylene from southern Iran to petrochemical firms based in western provinces.
It runs from the port city of Asalouyeh on the Persian Gulf coast to Mahabad in West Azerbaijan Province in the northwest, supplying feedstock to several petrochemical complexes.
Iran’s petrochemical facilities are concentrated in the port cities of Asalouyeh and Mahshahr of the Persian Gulf. However, in the last few decades new petrochemical plants have come on stream, particularly across the western belt, as part of efforts to help lift local economies.
Ethylene is a building block of a range of chemicals, from plastics to antifreeze solutions and solvents and is used in the agriculture sector for ripening fruits.
With an estimated global output of over 150 million tons in 2016, ethylene is the most commercially produced gaseous compound. Iran’s annual output of ethylene is 7.3 million tons.
