Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct.11
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran seeks to import methanol to olefins (MTO) technology from China for producing ethylene and propylene from methanol.
Mohammad-Hossein Peivandi, Deputy Director of National Iranian Petrochemical Company, said the two sides will sign a memorandum of understanding in the near future, Iran's Shana news agency reported October 11.
MTO solution allows petrochemical producers to use methanol from natural gas or coal, instead of petroleum, to produce high yields of high-value plastics and petrochemicals.
Peyvandi said on September 29 that 8 methanol-producing units will come on stream in Iran in the next 5 years.
The units will have the capacity to produce 19 million metric tons per year, Iran's ISNA News Agency reported.
"Once the units come on stream, Iran will become one of the world's biggest methanol producers," Peyvandi said.
"This will send a great shock to the global market," he said, adding that Iran's current methanol production rate stands at 5 million metric tons per year.
NPC has requested the Iranian government to allocate $5-10 billion out of the National Development Fund to finish the incomplete petrochemical projects, Peyvandi said.
"The money will be allocated to projects that are more than 60 percent complete," he said, Iran's IRNA News Agency reported.
The value of Iran's annual petrochemical output may double to $40 billion, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said September 2013.
For the time being, the value of domestic petrochemical products per year is about $20 billion, he said. He hopes that the figure would increase to $40 billion.
Between 1996 and 2006, the first surge in the value of petrochemical output occurred, so that the annual production increased from $1billion to $20 billion, IRNA said.
In the second surge, the figure will reach $40 billion, he said.