Ethane production capacity in Asaluyeh is around 7.6 million tons a year. With the launching of the four phases output will reach 9.6 million tons, Iran Petronet website reported.
There also are plans to increase ethane production in the region in the next fiscal, including the first phase of Bushehr Petrochemical Complex with annual capacity of 850,000 tons of methane, and Parsian Sepehr Refinery, with 1.3 million tons per year, as well as phases 12 and 14 of South Pars, with a capacity of 1.7 and 1 million tons respectively.
When all the units are operational, annual production of ethane in Asaluyeh will rise to more than 14 million tons, Financial Tribune reported.
Ethane is among the high value-added products used as feedstock in petrochemical plants. Domestic demand for ethane is 5.85 million tons.
Each ton of ethane, as the principal element in manufacturing petrochemicals, namely ethylene, can generate at least $1,000 in export revenue.
Rise in Ethylene Production
The plan to increase ethylene output, as a key feedstock in the petrochemical industry, in Jam Petrochemical Complex, was launched last week.
Last year, a contract for modernizing one of the olefin unit furnaces in Jam was signed with an Asian company to transfer knowhow and help increase annual production of the furnace by 15%.
Prior to the signing of the contract, production from each furnace was about 40 tons per hour. With the renovation complete, output has reached 46 tons per hour.
Exporting the extra ethylene can generate $11.3 million.
The knowhow to upgrade the furnaces has been transferred to Iran and domestic engineers and technicians are drawing on modern methods to improve productivity in petrochemical plants across the country.
SP Phases 22-24 Second Platform Installed
The second offshore platform for phases 22-24 of the South Pars Gas Field was installed in the Persian Gulf.
Extracting gas from Platform 24A will start in two weeks, the Oil Ministry news portal Shana reported.
Phases 22-24 are to produce 56 million cubic meters per day of sour gas, 50 mcm/d of methane, 2,900 tons per day of LPG, 400 t/d of sulfur and 75,000 barrels per day of gas condensate.
South Pars is the world's largest gas field, shared between Iran and Qatar, covering 3,700 square kilometers of Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf.
The giant gas field holds an estimated 39 trillion cubic meters of natural gas in place, of which 14 tcm is in Iranian territory and the rest in the tiny emirate off the Persian Gulf.
Iran is developing the mega gas project in 24 phases. All, minus Phase 11, will be up and running by 2020. The field has produced 1.3 trillion cubic meters of gas since 2002 when the first phase was launched.
The field's current output is reported at 580 million cubic meters per day or 70% of the country's total demand.