Iran Launching $1.43 Billion Petrochemical Plant
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran is launching a major petrochemical plant that relies on homegrown equipment for more than 80% of its needs, a senior official in the state-owned Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company (PGPIC) said.
Hassan Neshanzadeh, who leads Planning and Business Operations at the PGPIC, said on Monday that Gachsaran Petrochemical Company, based in southern Iran, will soon be inaugurated in a ceremony attended by President Ebrahim Raisi.
He stated that the project will increase Iran’s ethylene production by 1 million metric tons (mt) per year.
Neshanzadeh said the project has cost 1.3 billion euros ($1.43 billion), adding that a bulk of the equipment used in the plant have been provided from Iranian suppliers.
“Gachsaran is the first polyolefin unit (in Iran) with home-made furnace burners,” said the official.
Gachsaran Petrochemicals will rely on 1.25 million mt per day of ethane gas as its feedstock. The gas will be supplied to the plant through a 90-kilometer pipeline from Bidboland Gas Refinery, located in the nearby Khuzestan region.
Iran’s Energy Ministry has guaranteed to supply 12 million cubic meters per year of water and 50 megawatts of electricity to the plant.
The launch of the plant will generate 1,000 direct jobs in the relatively impoverished regions in southern Iran while another 3,000 jobs will be created on the supply chain of the industry.
The PGPIC accelerated construction works for Gachsaran Petrochemicals in 2019, some 15 years after it started the project.
The planned launch comes despite the fact that Iran’s oil sector has been subject to a series of American sanctions since 2018.
Some experts believe the US sanctions on Iran have backfired as they have forced the country to rely more on domestic resources to expand its massive oil and gas sector.