NPC and the Tunisian company Groupe Chimique Tunisien (GCT) signed a contract for the revamping of Razi Petrochemical Company (RPC)'s phosphoric acid plant. RPC is an NPC's subsidiary. The contract was signed by RPC's managing director Mohammad Beirami and GCT's chairman and managing director Kais Daly in Tunisia in February 2003. NPC and GCT also discussed possible commercial cooperation.
Nematzadeh was in Tunisia along with high ranking Iranian delegation headed by Dr.Aref, first vice-president.
During his stay, Nematzadeh met the Tunisian Minister of Industry and Energy Abdullah Al-Munsif. They explored ways of expanding mutual ties.





Development plans of the Iranian petrochemical industry hinge on natural gas and condensates, so says M. H. Peyvandi, NPC's director of planning and development. Peyvandi told the Oil Refining & Petrochemicals Conference in the Middle East in Abu Dhabi, UAE, that most of the gas used in the Iranian petrochemical sector was utilized for producing fertilizers. This trend, he said; "will change in the near future as NPC is going to produce ethylene-based petrochemicals primarily using natural gas derivatives such as ethane, condensates and LPG."
Pointing to the availability of abundant natural gas in Kharg Island, South Pars gas field and Bandar Imam, he said four methanol plants with annual capacity of around four million tonnes are either in operation or are being implemented. NPC is implementing an ammonia/urea project yielding one million tonnes of urea annually. It is also constructing two aromatic projects using condensates as feedstock. "The projects will produce some 6 million tonnes of aromatics and hydrocarbon cuts per annum", Peyvandi said. He went on to say: "Moreover, seven olefin plants have been envisaged in the NPC's strategic development plans of which five are either under construction or will be contracted out in the near future. Ethane and raffinate from gas will be used as feedstock for these projects."
He added that recent developments in methane reforming technologies including improvements in Fischer-Tropsch processes for converting gas to liquids (GTL), production of olefins from methanol (MTO and MTP), fuel cell and dimethyl ether (DME) has led NPC to conduct feasibility studies on them. Peyvandi said, "NPC is studying a 50,000-70,000-b/d middle distillate project. The study is expected to be completed in mid 2003. If the results of the feasibility study are positive, the plant can be put into commercial operations by the end of 2006."





NPC output reached around 11.95mn tonnes in mid February 2002. The figure is up by 4% compared to the output in the corresponding period last year.
Currently, NPC has nine production facilities. It expects to produce 39mn tonnes of various products by 2005, of which 25.6mn are end-products. Several of its development projects, which are already under way in Petrochemical Special Economic Zone in Mahshahr, Khuzestan Province and Pars Special Economic/ Energy Zone, in Assaluyeh , Bushehr Province are slated to be operational by 2005.



Three NPC facilities, Khorasan, Esfahan and Kharg petrochemical complexes, received safety award in recognition of their safe operations. These facilities registered 11, 9 and 7 million man-hour accident-free operations respectively. NPC president, M. R. Nematzadeh granted the awards in a special ceremony. He expressed hope that the complexes' managers and staff would do their best in demonstrating their commitment to create safe working environments and controlling occupational health and safety risks.





Three NPC production subsidiaries have obtained Occupational Health and Safety Management System (OHSAS 18001) certification. The facilities include Razi, Shiraz and Uromiyeh complexes. So far, seven out of the nine NPC production complexes have obtained the certification. The remaining two facilities, Bandar Imam and Kharg complexes have devised timetables to acquire the certification.



NPC had announced earlier that obtaining OHSAS 18001 certification by its production facilities is among its safety priorities.
OHSAS 18001 is a comprehensive occupational health and safety management system specification, meant to enable organizations to control occupational health and safety risks and improve their performance. OHSAS 18001 Certification calls for a company's commitment to a safe working environment and to protecting employees against injury at work.





NPC dispatched a group of its personnel working in the company's production facilities and projects to Canada to attend in a Health, Safety and Environment training program. The 48-day program familiarized the attendees with new systems in safety operations and prevention and control of incidents in petrochemical industry. Twenty-one NPC staff attended in the program.





Edward Mason attended Iran's first international annual plastics and rubber trade show (Iran Plast 2002) which was held in Tehran in December 2002. He is the editor of Plastics in Canada magazine. Since 1980 Mason has worked as a business journalist. He has been editor of the magazine since 1995.
Following his recent visit to Tehran, he wrote a letter to NPC president describing how the visit affected him. Extracts:

"As you know, this was my first visit to your country, and in all ways I found it fascinating. I have not been able to stop talking about it since I returned.
In western countries, there are many strange and misleading things said and written about Iran, and very few people understand its culture, its history or its hopes for the future. I am very glad I had this opportunity to learn about matters at first hand, and I am using whatever opportunities present themselves to write about my experience."