Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 9
By Rahim Zamanov - Trend: The construction of the second phase of Iran's West Ethylene Pipeline will be completed by December 2013, the project's manager said on Saturday.
"The phase 2 will come on stream by December," the IRNA News Agency quoted Mas'oud Meysami as saying.
"Some 46 kilometers of the pipeline hasn't been completed yet," he said, adding that the mentioned part will be completed by the end of autumn.
Iranian officials say the pipeline will facilitate the industrial development in the Western part of the country.
The pipeline will carry feedstock to petrochemical plants that lie on its route stretching from Assaluyeh in southern Iran to West Azarbaijan.province in north-western Iran.
Earlier, the pipeline was scheduled to be completed and become operational by November 2013, but now it is expected to start functioning by December.
The construction of the pipeline began in 2002, and is considered to be the longest ethylene transfer pipeline in the world, which is designed to transfer around 150,000 tons of ethylene to the Tabriz Petrochemical Plant. It would also cater to feedstock requirements of Lorestan, Mahabad and Kurdestan petrochemical plants.
Around 14 petrochemical plants, which are either operational or being constructed with the investment of $8.5 billion, lie on the route of the pipeline, which would pass through 11 provinces of the country such as Fars, Khuzestan, Lorestan, Kohguiluyeh Boyer Ahmad, Chahar Mahal va Bakhtiari, Kurdstan, Kermanshah, Ilam, Hamedan, East Azarbaijan and West Azarbaijan.