Iran, Italian Tecnimont Sign Petrochemicals Deal
Italian engineering firm Maire Tecnimont (MT) signed a contract with Iran for the provision of engineering, utilities and offsites services (U&O) at the $350mn Ibn Sina plant, in the Hamadan province in the western regions.
MT had already sealed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to develop the Sadaf petrochemical plant and a contract for the Pad Polymer Jam plant, both in Assaluyeh in the south.
The Association of Petrochemical Industry Corporation (APIC) announced October 24 that the West Ethylene pipeline, 12% built, is projected to be completed by 2021 and the Ibn Sina plant will become operational in time for the completion of pipeline so it can receive feedstock.
Ibn Sina is planned to produce 120,000 metric tons/yr ethylene oxide (licensed by Anglo-Dutch Shell); 100,000 mt/yr ethoxylates (licensed by Swiss Buss Chemtech), 50,000 mt/yr glycol ethers and 30,000 mt/yr ethanolamine (licenced by Swiss Sulzer), the official website of the plant says.
Maire Tecnimont did not respond to questions from NGW but according to its official website, the Italian company has signed an engineering services contract and has developed the Pad Polymer Jam plants project by 60%, aimed to produce 200,000 mt/yr acrylonitrile butadiene styrene and 60,000 mt/yr rubber.
On the other hand, Tecnimont has signed a contract for a urea production licence for Lavan chemical company in Assaluyeh.
The company also signed a MoU with the Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company (PGPIC) three years ago with worth €1bn ($1.18bn), but has not feminized that or MoU on Sadaf petrochemical plant yet.
Iran eyes doubling petrochemicals
According to an official document, prepared by National Petrochemical Company and seen by NGW, Iranian petrochemical plants produced 26.8mn mt of products in the six months starting March 21, of which 11.176mn mt (8% growth year on year) went for export, with a value of $5.76bn (29.8% growth).
Iran produced about 49.1mn mt of petrochemicals in 2016, about 9.4% more than 2015, using 16.9bn m³ of refined gas (as fuel and feedstock) as well as 6.2bn m³ of gross and sour gas (as feedstock). It also used 3.178mn mt ethane, 2.588mn mt NGLs, 5.395mn mt condensate and 1.878mn mt naphtha during the last fiscal year, the document says.
Iran’s nominal petrochemicals production capacity is a little more than 62mn mt/yr, but Iran needs to spend $20bn in order to complete ongoing petrochemical projects which will double the petrochemical output capacity by 2021; and a further $35bn to bring the output to 150mn mt/yr by 2026.
Iran has signed several MoUs and contracts with foreign entities including Shell, Korea's Hyundai Engineering (HEC), Chinese CNTIC, Japanese Marubeni and Itochu to develop its projects.
Dalga Khatinoglu