NPC selects contractor for its PP, lldPE and MEG projects

NPC selected engineering and procurement (EP) contractors for three downstream plants of its giant olefins No. 10 project. A contract for a 300,000-t/y polypropylene (PP) plant was awarded to Tecnimont of Italy and Nargan of Iran. The plant will be based on Basell's technology.
Tecnimont and Nargan also won the contract for a 300,000-t/y swing linear low-density polyethylene (lldPE) plant whose technology will be supplied by Basell. The PP plant will be supplied in 33 months while the lldPE facility is scheduled to be completed in 34 months.

Moreover, an EP contract was awarded to Tecnimont and Iran's Petrochemical Industries Design and Engineering Co. (PIDEC) for a 400,000-t/y monoethylene glycol (MEG) plant based on Shell technology. Japan's Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding Company will carry out the basic engineering work as Tecnimont's sub-contractor. The plant will be supplied in 33 months.
Nargan and PIDEC, Tecnimont's partners to the projects will deliver detailed engineering and equipment manufactured in Iran. The facilities will be located at Pars Special Economic/Energy Zone (ParsEE), commonly known as Assaluyeh, on the Iranian coast of the Persian Gulf.
The NPC subsidiary, Jam Petrochemical Company will implement and operate the facilities. Currently, NPC produces 100,000-t/y of PP at Arak and Bandar Imam complexes. The capacity will jump to 860,000-t/y when the PP plants of olefins No. 6, 7 and 10 come onstream. The lldPE capacity will hike up from its current 160,000-t/y to 2.66 million-t/y after olefins No. 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 become operational. The MEG capacity is already 105,000-t/y but it will reach 1.5 million-t/y when olefins No. 7, 8 and 10 are completed.

NPC awards a high-density polyethylene (hdPE) contract to Krupp Uhde & Sazeh

NPC awarded the contract for the high-density polyethylene (hdPE) plant of its No. 10th olefins project to a consortium of Germany's Krupp Uhde and Iran's Sazeh. The contract covers provision of license, basic and detailed engineering as well as supply of equipment and technical assistance. The facility has a capacity of 300,000-t/y and will use Basell's technology. It will be located at Pars Special Economic/Energy Zone (ParsEE), also known as Assaluyeh, on the Iranian coast of the Persian Gulf.
Sazeh will provide the detailed engineering and those pieces of equipment that are manufactured in Iran. The facility will be supplied in 36 months. The NPC subsidiary, Jam Petrochemical Company will implement and operate the project. Jam's cracker provides feed for the HDPE plant.

NPC picks contractor for its mega methanol project

NPC awarded the engineering and supply contract for its methanol no. 4 project to Germany's Lurgi Oel.Gas.Chemie GmbH and Iran's Petrochemical Industries Design and Engineering Company (PIDEC). The contract covers the provision of license, basic engineering, supply of equipment and technical assistance for the plant. Lurgi will use its state-of-the art technology, Gas Cooled Methanol Reactor for the project.

The plant will be located at Pars Special Economic/Energy Zone (PARSEE), formerly Assaluyeh, on the Iranian coast of the Persian Gulf and is scheduled to be completed in 36 months. It will use 180 000-Nm3/h of natural gas and 120-t/h of oxygen as feedstock. Its output will be totally exported.
With a capacity of 1.65 million-t/y, the NPC's no. 4 project, together with a methanol plant in Trinidad that is already at engineering phase, are the world's largest methanol plants.
PIDEC, Lurgi's partner to this project, will provide the detailed engineering and the equipment that are manufactured in Iran.
Zagros Petrochemical Company (ZPC), an NPC subsidiary, will implement and operate the project.

RPC's sulfur granulation project starts trail production

A sulfur granulation project at Razi Petrochemical Complex (RPC) has begun trail production. Constructed in a 7-hectare area within RPC, the project has a capacity of 1600-t/d in two trains. The project was launched in a bid to improve environment protection standards at the complex. It will enhance the complex competitive edge for marketing the product at international markets. The complex has a surplus of 400,000-t/y of sulfur for export. RPC, one of the NPC's oldest subsidiaries, is Iran's producer of fertilizers and sulfur.

NPC selects Snamprogetti and Sazeh for its urea granulation project

NPC awarded the contract for the urea granulation project of its Razi Petrochemical Complex (RPC), south west of Iran, to Snamprojetti of Italy and Sazeh of Iran. The contract is for basic and detailed engineering and construction as well as supply of technology and equipment, pre-commissioning, start-up and performance test. The project uses Norway's Norsk Hydro technology and takes 18 months to complete. The project capacity is 1,800 tonne/day (594,000 tonne/year). RPC production slate includes ammonia; two plants of 330,000 tonne/year each, diammonium phosphate (DAP); two plants of 210,000 tonne/year and 240,000 tonne/year, phosphoric acid; 255,000 tonne/year, sulfur 508,000 tonne/year, sulfuric acid 627,000 tonne/year, urea; two plants of 288,750 tonne/year and 495,000 tonne/year.

NPC set to award contract for its CO project

NPC is expected to announce the engineering and procurement contractor for a carbon monoxide (CO) project in the near future. NPC's subsidiary, Petrochemical Industries Development Management Co. (PIDMCO) has completed technical and contractual negotiations with bidders and will award the contract after receiving the bidders' revised offers. The 140,000 tonne/year project will be built at PETZONE. It will provide feed for some of the NPC's acetic acid and isocyanates projects that will be built at the Zone.

NPC picks contractor for LAB project

NPC selected Spain's Tecnicas Reunidas and Iran's EnerChimi Engineering Consultancy as the engineering and procurement contractors for its 5,000 tonne/year linear alkyl benzene (LAB) project. The contract calls for detailed engineering and equipment supply.
Basic engineering has already been completed by France's IFP which also supplies the project's technology. The project will be located in the city of Kermanshah, west of Iran and is scheduled for commissioning in 2002.
NPC's subsidiary Mashal Daran Petrochemical Company will implement and operate the plant.

Bid documents for a urea-ammonia project in PARSEE launched

Bid documents have been launched for the NPC's huge ammonia/urea complex at Pars Special Economic/Energy Zone (PARSEE), formerly known as Assaluyeh, on the Iranian coast of the Persian Gulf. The deadline for the bids is February 15, 2001. The complex will produce 2,050 tonne/day (676,500 tonne/year) of ammonia and 3,250 tonne/day (1.07m tonne/year) of urea.

Olefin expansion and ethoxylates projects at ARPC

Arak Petrochemical Company (ARPC) has formulated an olefin expansion project and a grassroots ethoxylates project. The olefin expansion project is designed to increase the capacity of the complex's olefin unit by 25% providing more ethylene and propylene for its downstream units. Once the project is in place, it will increase the complex's ethylene and propylene capacity from the current 247,000-tonne/year and 94,000 tonne/year to 310,000 tonne/year to 120,000 tonne/year respectively. The feedstock for the project is blended naphtha that will be provided by the nearby Arak oil refinery. The project, whose engineering and procurement contract is already under negotiation, is expected to be completed in 24 months.
The ethoxylates project will be constructed to complete the complex's product chain and to meet the local downstream demand particularly in detergent and textile industries. The technology contract of the 30,000 tonne/year project has been awarded to Italy's Ballestra. It will be completed in 24 months.