NPC is expected shortly to float tender documents for three petrochemical projects, which will be built at Kharg Island on the northwest coast of the Persian Gulf.
The projects include a 310,000 tonne/year ethylene cracker, a 310,000 tonne/year high-density polyethylene (hdPE) plant and a 660,000 tonne/year methanol plant.
The projects will consume ethane as their feedstock which will be supplied by the National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC)'s fields in the region.




Negotiations are underway with short listed bidders for the engineering and procurement (EP) contract for Razi Petrochemical Co. (RPC)'s 3rd ammonia project. NPC is expected to pick up the contractor by early March 2002. RPC is located in south Iran near the northern coast of the Persian Gulf. The project will have a capacity of 2050 t/day (676,500-t/y).
RPC already has two ammonia plants each with a capacity of 330,000 tonne/year. It has an overall production capacity of 3.2 million tonnes per year.




A contract awarded by the NPC to the French Technip and Iranian Nargan for the design and construction of a one million tonne per year ethane cracker, which forms part of the 9th olefin complex, has come into force. NPC awarded the contract to Technip and Nargan in September 2000.
The project will be implemented and operated by Pars Petrochemical Co., an NPC subsidiary, and is expected to be completed in July 2003.
The contract became effective following the finalization of a multi-source financing scheme. The financing is based on export credit facilities from Italy, France and The Netherlands.
Under the contract, Technip will provide its proprietary technologies, furnaces and processes for ethylene production while Nargan will carry out detailed engineering, procurement and supply of local equipment and materials, supervision during construction and commissioning. Basic engineering has already been completed under an 'early start system' based on cash payments.
The 9th olefin project is already under construction at the port of Assaluyeh, south of Iran in an area of 92 hectares. It receives much of its feedstock, which is 2,700 MMSCFD of rich natural gas, from two pipelines of 32" and 48". The feedstock will be provided by Pars Oil and Gas Co. (POGC) from South Pars gas field. After extraction of C2, C3 and C4 fractions, the lean sales gas is returned to POGC refinery through a 56" pipeline.
The 9th olefin project consists of 5 downstream units to process 1.6 million tonne per year of ethane produced in the C2 recovery and fractionation unit. The downstream products slate include:
1,000,000-tonne/year ethylene plant, 300,000-tonne/year linear low-density polyethylene (lldPE) / high-density polyethylene (hdPE) swing plant, 300,000-tonne/year low-density polyethylene (ldPE) plant, 645,000-tonne/year ethyl benzene plant and 600,000-tonne/year of styrene monomer plant.
The engineering and procurement (EP) contract for the C2 recovery plant has been awarded to Linde AG of Germany, which is financed by Deutche Bank. Basic engineering for the plant is already completed while detail engineering is at an advanced stage.
Process license for the ldPE plant has been given to Stamicarbon. Selection of process licensor for the lldPE/hdPE plant is expected to be finalized in the near future.
Snamprogetti has been chosen as the EP contractor for the styrene monomer plant with Enichem as the plant's process licensor. Negotiations are underway with the contractor for financing the project.
For the ethyl benzene plant, Enichem has been selected as the process licensor. The license agreement will be signed after completion of catalyst testing at an existing plant in one of the NPC's subsidiaries. Catalyst testing is expected to be completed by March 2002.
By the end of December 2001, the overall actual progress for the 9th olefin project stood at 5.3% against the scheduled progress of 4.7%. The project's downstream units are scheduled to be completed by December 2004.