NPC's PX plant is officially inaugurated

President Khatami officially inaugurated Bandar Imam's paraxylene (PX) plant on 16 February 2001.
In his address at the inauguration ceremony, President Khatami said, "oil is the most valuable raw material that God has bestowed on our nation. In order to make the most of the country's oil reserves and to preserve them for the coming generations, oil and gas downstream industries should grow in the country." He stipulated that, "we should not use oil as a raw material, rather we ought to use it in a direction that it converts to a capital generating multiple value added".
President Khatami added that his government had reduced the share of oil revenues in the country's budget from 76% in 1997 to 50% in 2001". He called for developing the petrochemicals downstream industries and preparing the ground for strengthening the role of the private sector investment in the industries.

Referring to the special economic zones like those of the Bandar Imam and Assaluyeh, President Khatami said such zones are suitable bases for the private sector investment.

Petroleum Minister, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh also addressed the inauguration ceremony saying that Iran's petrochemical industry is being developed to optimize oil and gas reserves. He said the value of the PX plant's products is $80m annually.

Listed under phases 1 and 2 of the company's Strategic Program, the PX plant is one of the NPC's grassroots development projects. It is built in an area of 10 hectares within the Bandar Imam Petrochemical Complex (BIPC). It has an annual capacity of 180 000 tonne of paraxylene and 40 000 tonne of by-products, including liquid distillates, C9 aromatics and toluene. The plant consumes mixed xylenes and hydrogen as its feedstock, which would be supplied by BIPC. IFP of France provided the license for the project. Contracts for basic and detailed engineering as well as procurement and supply of equipment and machinery were awarded to Abay Engineering of Belgium and Chemi Naft of Iran.

The erection, installation and pre-commissioning contracts were awarded to Machinsazi Pars Company of Iran. Iranian engineering companies were involved, to a large extent, in the construction of this project. In this connection, they designed and fabricated the plant's 102 meters mixed xylenes separation tower. The plant was completed in 35 months. The project's total cost was $92m and Rials 165bn.

NPC negotiates with bidders over a large ammonia & urea project

Following the receipt of techno-economic proposals for a world-scale ammonia/urea complex, NPC launched technical and contractual negotiations in late February with the bidders. The complex will be located in Pars Special Economic/Energy Zone (ParsEE) on the northern coast of the Persian Gulf. The complex will produce 2050 tonne/day (676 500 tonne/year) of ammonia and 3250 tonne/day (1.07m tonne/year) of urea.

Methanol 4th kick off meeting will be launched in Germany

Following the award of an engineering and supply contract to Germany's Lurgi and Iran's Petrochemical Industries Design and Engineering Company (PIDEC) for the NPC's mega methanol project (methanol no. 4) in December 2000, the project's kick-off meeting will soon be held in Germany.
The facility will produce 1.65 million tonne/year of grade AA methanol which is all planned for export. It will be located at Pars Special Economic/Energy Zone (ParsEE). NPC's methanol no. 4 project, together with a methanol plant in Trinidad that is already at engineering phase, are the world's largest methanol plants.