Mobin petrochemical Co. has awarded engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts for its power & steam, industrial gases, as well as desalination & water treatment packages at its common utilities complex in Assaluyeh, south of Iran on the northern coast of the Persian Gulf.
The EPC contract for the power and steam package was awarded to a consortium of Mapna and Mapna International. When completed, the package will generate 740 megawatt/hour of electricity. The power plant will consist of 6 GE-9 gas turbines each with a capacity of 123 megawatt/hour. The plant will also produce 1,980 tonnes/hour of steam. The package is slated to be completed in 27 months. Mapna will carry out detailed and basic engineering, erection and construction while Mapna International will carry out the procurement.



Mapna is an Iranian company,which specializes in executing turnkey contracts for thermal power plants.
The EPC contract for the industrial gases package was awarded to a consortium of Linde AG of Germany and Sazeh of Iran. The contract calls for the provision of engineering, procurement and construction of air separation and compressed air units. When completed, the package will produce 156 tonne/hour of oxygen, 48,000Nm3/hour of nitrogen and 30,500Nm3/hour of compressed air.
The EPC contract for the desalination and water treatment package was awarded to Sidem of France. The contract is for the construction of 3 desalination and water treatment units each with a capacity of 7,500m3/day of desalinated water, 31,000m3/day of demineralized water and 1,800m3/day of potable water. It also requires polishing of the returned condensates from petrochemical plants in Assaluyeh.



The EPC contract for constructing two other desalination units was given to the local contractor Fan Niroo company. All the five desalination units will have similar capacities.
Mobin complex will supply the utilities, including power, steam, water, oxygen, nitrogen, cooling water, wastewater treatment required by the NPC's projects in Assaluyeh. It also manages offsites and interconnections between the facilities.
Mobin is slated to come into operations by April 2004.



NPC is expected to start technical and contractual negotiations soon with shortlisted bidders who are keen to provide engineering and procurement services for its polyvinyl chloride (PVC) project.
The 300,000-tonne/year PVC facility will be constructed at Petrochemical Special Economic Zone (Petzone) in Mahshahr.

NPC has decided to discard a proposed 80,000-t/y soda ash project, which was to be built adjacent to the Shiraz Petrochemical Complex (SPC). Instead, it has decided to revamp and expand output capacity at its existing soda ash plant, which is part of SPC. The expansion will raise SPC's soda ash capacity by 40,000 tonne/year.
SPC's soda ash was built in 1973 and was revamped in 1992. It has a production capacity of 80,000-tonne/year light sodium carbonate, 66,000-tonne/year of heavy sodium carbonate and 20,000-tonne/year of sodium bicarbonate.

NPC subsidiary Mashaldaran Petrochemical Co. will kick off erection work in June 2002 for its 50,000 tonne/year linear alkylbenzene (LAB) project in Kermanshah, west of Iran.
The project's detailed engineering is scheduled to be completed by September 2002. Site preparation as well as foundation work for the tank yard area are already completed. Prefabrication and installation of 36 storage tanks with a capacity of over 4,000 tonnes is expected to be completed by August 2002. Non-industrial civil work will begin before mid 2002.



The project is slated to come onstream in the first half of 2003.
The project will use Institut Francais du Petrole(IFP)'s technology. IFP also provides the project's basic engineering. Tecnicas Reunidas of Spain and Enerchimi of Iran provide detailed engineering and procurement services.
Feedstock will be supplied by the nearby Kermanshah refinery.Of the LAB output, 50% will be sold into the domestic market with the remainder exported.The proposed facility is NPC's first LAB plant.