“The plant, which has been built by domestic engineers, has the capacity to produce 85,000 tons of polybutadiene rubber a year,” the Oil Ministry news agency Shana quoted Behzad Mohammadi as saying.
Polybutadiene rubber is a polymer with high resistance to damage from normal wear or usage. and is used in downstream industries for producing rubber items, especially tires.
“This project will help our tire and rubber industries reduce imports of some types of polymer,” Financial Tribune quoted him as saying.
The first phase of the major complex was launched in 2014 with annual production capacity of 250,000 tons. The plant’s output includes methanol, urea and ammonia among other value-added petrochemicals such as polystyrene and ethylene glycol.
Besides supplying domestic companies, the company is present in the global market and exports to China, Pakistan, India, Turkey, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Romania, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Brazil.
The plant’s feedstock includes butadiene and styrene monomers which are supplied from Amir Kabir Petrochemical Company by pipeline and Pars Petrochemical Company by truck.
More Plants Underway
Construction of petrochemical complexes is underway across the country to broaden the range of petrochemical production, Mohammadi noted.
One of the NPC’s projects is a petrochemical plant in Eslamabad-e Gharb County, Kermanshah Province, which will consist of a methanol unit and a polypropylene with a production capacity of 660,000 tons per year and 120,000 tons per year respectively.
Currently 56 petrochemical plants are operating and produce 54 million tons of petrochemicals annually. “This output will reach 100 million tons by 2021 and 133 million tons by 2025,” he said.
Total investment in the sector will jump from $53 billion now to $70 billion by 2021 and $90b by 2025, Mohammadi was quoted as saying.
The senior official added that by 2025, 16 new petrochemical products would be produced by domestic companies.
Petrochemical plants in total consume 33 million tons of feedstock annually or 650,000 barrels of oil per day.
He added the number of plants would reach 83 by 2021 consuming an equivalent of 1.4 million barrels per day of oil by then.
The number of petrochemical plants are planned to reach 109 by 2025 and consume 74 million tons of feedstock annually -- equivalent to 1.7 million barrels of crude oil a day.