Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 2
By Emil Ilgar – Trend:
Iran’s top petrochemical official says Total and Shell are going to build two petrochemical plants in Iran.
The head of National Petrochemical Company, Marzieh Shah-Daei, who visited Germany Oct. 20 and negotiated cooperation with European companies, also said that Iran needs $50 billion investment in petrochemical projects.
Iran has already negotiated with French Air Liquide, Total, German Linde, Siemens, BASF, ThyssenKrupp, Danish Haldor Topsøe, US Honeywell UOP, Anglo-Dutch Shell, and a couple of Japanese companies such as Sojitz and Marubeni on petrochemical projects.
For now, Shell is interested to invest $350 million investment in Ibn-e Sina petrochemical complex and Total has willingness to invest $2 billion in Persian Gulf Holding Company’s projects.
None of them has finalized an agreement with Tehran, but a deal may be achieved by March 2017, according to Iranian officials.
Iran’s nominal petrochemical production capacity is about 63 million tons per year, but the actual level was about 48 million tons last year.
Shah-Daei says the country plans to increase the production volume to 130 million tons per year by 2020 and 180 million tons per year by 2025, respectively.
During the Germany trip, she also talked with an American company.
Honeywell UOP had a vast presence in the Iranian market before the sanctions in acquiring licenses and modern technologies for petrochemical projects.
The most important topics of discussion with the US company were the provision of technology for producing propylene as well as turning methanol into ethylene and polymers. Also, the method of PDH technology and the use of propane in the production of propylene were discussed by the two sides.
The 6th five-year development plan of Iran (2016-2021) emphasizes on the expansion of propylene and polypropylene production units to meet needs of downstream petrochemical industries.
Iran’s propylene production capacity is currently about 1 million tons per year. The figure is projected to be increased to 4 million tons by the end of the 6th development plan (2021) and to 8 million tons by the end of the 7th development plan (2026).