NPC's 4th methanol project will be constructed in Assaluyeh, south of Iran. The project is located at the Pars Special Economic/Energy Zone (Parsee) in the vicinity of the South Pars gas field. The field, jointly owned by Iran and Qatar, has gas-in-place reserves of 436TCF representing 8% of the world's total reserves and 40% of Iran's proven reserves. Gas from the South Pars field has a relatively high content of C2+, over 8.5%, and considerable amount of gas condensates. Based on the feedstock obtainable from the field's phases 1-3, NPC has planned to build several world scale petrochemical facilities, including the 4th methanol facility.
NPC's mega methanol plant in Assaluyeh will have a capacity of 1.65m-t/y methanol.
It will use 180,000-Nm3/h of natural gas and 120-t/h of oxygen as feedstock. Its output will be totally exported.
In late 2000, NPC awarded the engineering and supply contract for the project to Germany's Lurgi Oel.Gas.Chemie GmbH and to 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 Gas Cooled Methanol Reactor for the project.
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. The facility is scheduled to be completed by 2004.