Kordestan Petrochemical Company of Iran has awarded an "EPCC" contract to a consortium of Tecnimont of Italy & PIDEC of Iran to construct a Low Density Polyethylene plant in Sanandaj, Kordestan province, northwest of Iran. The plant which will be based on Basell Polyolefin LUPOTECH Technology, will produce 300,000 tonne/year of LDPE in various grades for domestic consumption and export. The plant will consume 303,000 tonne/year of ethylene as feed, which will be supplied by the 11th olefin plant complex through West ethylene Pipeline. Utilities, including power, water and steam will be supplied by the utilities plant of Kordestan petrochemical complex. The contract covers grant of license, basic and detailed engineering, supply of equipment and materials, construction, erection, pre-commissioning, commissioning start-up and performance tests. The plant is scheduled to be completed in 38 months. Kordestan Petrochemical Company is implementing and will operate the facility.





Bakhtar Petrochemical Company awarded the contract for two large olefin plants named 11th Olefin No. 1 & No. 2 with a capacity of 1,200,000 tonne/year each to a consortium of Linde of Germany, Sazeh of Iran and Hyundai of South Korea. The plants will be built at Pars Special Economic/Energy Zone in Assaluyeh on the northern coast of the Persian Gulf. The EPCC contract covers provision of license, basic and detailed engineering, supply of equipment, construction, precommissioning, commissioning, start-up and performance tests. 1,600,000 tonne/year of ethane as feedstock will be sourced from phases 4, 5, 9 and 10 of the South Pars Gas field for each plant. The time schedule for project is guaranteed for 38 and 42 months respectively. All the required utilities will be supplied at the battery limits of the plants from the nearby Mobin second centralized UT complex. Bakhtar Petrochemical Co. is responsible for implementing the projects. The 11th Olefin No. 1 & No. 2 will provide feedstock for the petrochemical plants that will be built in Iran's western provinces.







Arvand Petrochemical Company awarded the contract for its 1,000,000 tone/year ethylene plant to Petrochemical Industries Design and Engineering Company (PIDEC) of Iran. The plant will be built at the Petrochemical Special Economic Zone (Petzone) in Bandar Imam, on the northern coast of the Persian Gulf. The engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning (EPCC) contract covers provision of license, basic and detailed engineering, supply of equipment, construction, pre-commissioning, start-up and performance tests. ABB Lummus of the Netherlands will provide know-how, basic engineering & technical support and assistance during execution of the project. The plant will consume 1,300,000 tonne/year of ethane as feedstock which will be sourced from Bid Boland II Gas refinery. The ethylene plant will be completed in 48 months. Part of utilities will be supplied at the battery limits of the plant by the nearby Fajr centralized utility complex. Olefin No. 8 will provide part of the ethylene feedstock for the petrochemical plants that will be built in Iran's western provinces. The remaining ethylene will be used in Arvand downstream plants. Arvand Petrochemical Company is responsible for implementing and operating the plant.



Arvand Petrochemical Company awarded the contract for its ethylene oxide/ethylene glycol (EO/EG) plant to a consortium of Tecnicas Reunidas of Spain and Sazeh of Iran. The plant will have a capacity of 550,000 tonne/year of monoethylene glycol (MEG), 55,000 tonne/year of diethylene glycol, 3,700 tonne/year of triethylene glycol and 50,000 tonne/year of pure ethylene oxide. The plant will be built at Petrochemical Special Economic Zone (Petzone) in Bandar Imam, on the northern coast of the Persian Gulf. The engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning (EPCC) contract covers the provision of technology, basic and detailed engineering, supply of equipment, construction, pre-commissioning, commissioning, start-up and performance tests. The plant will be completed in 40 months. The EO/EGs plant will consume 360,000 tonne/year of ethylene as feedstock which will be sourced from Arvand's Olefin No. 8 plant. A 54,600 Nm3/hr pure oxygen plant for producing ethylene oxide is included in the contract which will be supplied by Air Liquid of France. Part of required utilities will be supplied at the battery limits of the plant by the nearby Fajr centralized utility complex. Arvand Petrochemical Company is responsible for implementing and operating the MEG plant.


NPC's Zagros No.1 methanol complex is on the verge of completion. Located in Assaluyeh, it is currently 97% complete and precommissioning work is under way at the site. The 1.65m tonne/year is expected to reach production within the first quarter of 2006. German company Lurgi is the technology licensor and contractor responsible for basic engineering and procurement services of the off-shore equipment and machinery, while detailed engineering and supply of the on-shore equipment is undertaken by Iranian contractor, PIDEC. The project is operated by Zagros Petrochemical Co., an NPC subsidiary, which is also building another methanol facility of the same capacity.




NPC is pushing ahead with its Zagros No. 2 methanol project at Assaluyeh. Overall, work on the 1.65m tonne/year project is already 60% complete. Zagros No. 2 uses the same technology as Zagros No. 1. The natural gas feedstock supply for the project will be sourced from South Pars gas field and oxygen will be supplied by a nearby centralized utility complex Mobin Petrochemical Co. When completed, 70% of the output from Zagros No. 1 and No. 2 will be exported.




NPC expects to start up the high-density polyethylene (hdPE) plant of its Olefin No. 7 by October 2005. The precommissioning work on the plant is already 80% complete. Major pieces of equipment of the hdPE plant have been erected. The ethylene feed for the precommissioning stage will be sourced from Bandar Imam and Amir Kabir complexes. Meanwhile, precommissioning activity on the facility's 1.1m tonne/year cracker is already 65% finished and it is expected to be commissioned by November 2005. The plant's main compressor and 6 of its furnaces have been commissioned. The remaining two furnaces will be operational by the end of August. Construction and erection work is 94% complete at the polypropylene plant. It is slated to be commissioned by December 2005. Facilities downstream of Olefins No. 7 include a 300,000 tonne/year high-density polyethylene (hdPE) unit, a 300,000 tonne/year polypropylene (PP) unit and an ethylene glycol/ethylene oxide (EG/EO) unit that would produce 50,000 tonne/year of ethylene oxide (EO) and 443,000 tonne/year of ethylene glycol (EG). It will also produce 200,000 tonne/year of propylene and 83,000 tonne/year of pyrolysis gasoline. Marun Petrochemical Co., an 80:20 joint venture between NPC and Oil Ministry Pension Fund, is handling the Olefin No. 7 project.


Implementation work is going on unabated at the sites of ammonia-urea No. 5 and ammonia No. 1 projects. Ammonia-urea No. 5 is located in the western province of Kermanshah. The plant is already 70% complete. It will produce 396,000 tonne/year of ammonia and 660,000 tonne/year of urea. The facility will consume 490,000 cubic meters of gas as feed which will be provided by the Iranian National Gas Co. NPC has 34% stake in the project and the remaining 66% is owned by the local private sector. Meanwhile, ammonia No. 1, which is being built at the site of Razi Petrochemical Complex, in Mahshahr, is 82% complete. The 677,000 tonne/year facility is expected to be brought onstream before the end of the current Iranian year by March 2006.




Implementation work is gaining steam at the isocyanates complex located at Petrochemical Special Economic Zone in Bandar Imam, south of Iran on the northern coast of the Persian Gulf. The complex consists of four process plants: a 30,000 tonne/year aniline unit, a 40,000 tonne/year methylene di-phenyl di-isocyanate (MDI) plant, a 40,000 tonne/year toluene di-isocyanate (TDI) unit and a 56,000 tonne/year nitric acid (NA) plant. The project is being built in two phases. Work on the first phase is 84% complete. The first phase's preliminary activities are already completed, while engineering and design work is 98% complete. Procurement and supply activities and construction and erection work are 93% and 69% complete respectively. The start-up for the first phase, which comprises the TDI unit, is forecast for late 2006. Currently, execution work mainly consists of equipment installation. So far, 367 items of mechanical equipment have been installed. Meanwhile, fabrication and installation of 106 items of static equipment have been finished by contractors. The project is being implemented and will be operated by Karoon Petrochemical Co., a joint venture between NPC, Hansa Chemie of Germany, Iran's Petrochemical Industries Investment Co. (PIIC) and Sweden's Chematur Engineering, which is also providing the technology. NPC holds a 40% stake in the venture and Chematur has 30% share. The other two partners PIIC and Hansa Chemie hold 20% and 10% stake respectively.




NPC subsidiary, Jam Petrochemical Co. is gearing up to precommission its 300,000 tonne/year high-density polyethylene (hdPE) unit at Assaluyeh, on the northern coast of the Persian Gulf. Construction and erection work on Jam's hdPE unit has already been completed. Meanwhile, work is in progress on Jam's 1.3m tonne/year cracker and its downstream units which include a 300,000 tonne/year polypropylene (PP) unit, a 300,000 tonne/year linear low-density polyethylene (lldPE)/hdPE unit, a 320,000 propylene plant, a 300,000 hdPE unit, a 443,000 ethylene glycols (EGs) facility and a 216,000 pyrolysis gasoline unit. Jam is also slated to produce Alfa olefins, 1-3 butadiene and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). Overall, the erection work for the entire Jam complex is over 82% complete and its total physical progress is over 92%. The erection activity is over 56% complete for the olefin plant. An Iranian private company called Farsa Chimi Co. holds a 100% stake in Jam's EGs plant while another Iranian private company, Sadra, has a 51% in its PP facility.

NPC's 50,000 tonne/year linear alkylbenzene (LAB) plant in Kermanshah, west of Iran is on production line with a purity of 94%. The plant's utilization rate is 70% and is running at a Bromide index of 2. Bisotoon Petrochemical Co., an NPC subsidiary, expects to gradually operate the facility at full capacity. Bisotoun also produces normal paraffin (NP) in the process chain of linear alkyl benzene (LAB) & heavy alky benzene (HAB) with a purity of 99.54%. It has exported its NP to Indian market. The plant also produces 6,500 tonne/year of heavy alkylate. Built on a 63-hectares site near the city of Kermanshah, it consumes 19,000 tonne/year of benzene which is sourced from Esfahan and Bandar-Imam Petrochemical Company and 386,000 tonne/year kerosene which are supplied by Kermanshah & Abadan Refineries. 339,000 tonne/year of the above said kerosene is returned to the refineries.

                    


Fanavaran Petrochemical Co. commissions its carbon monoxide (CO) plant at the Petrochemical Special Economic Zone (Petzone) in Bandar Imam, on the northern coast of the Persian Gulf. The plant has an output capacity of 140,000 tonne/year. The lion's share of the plant's output will be earmarked for the production of 150,000 tonne/year acetic acid facility at the same site in Petzone. Fanavaran already has a 1m tonne/year methanol plant in operation. Fanavaran's stake holders include NPC (50%), Social Security Organization (17%), the National Pension Fund (18%) and Petroleum Ministry Pension and Welfare Fund (15%).