This is the first time Iranian petrochemical staff instruct their foreign peers. An eight-member team from Amir Kabir in the city of Mahshahr, Khuzestan Province, is in Tobolsk, the second oldest Russian settlement east of the Ural Mountains in Asian Russia and the historic capital of the Siberia region for three months, Financial Tribune reported.
Both companies are licensed by Linde, a leading German industrial gas and engineering company. Linde selected the Iranian engineers from among petrochemical complexes it has licensed including in India and the UAE, ILNA reported.
The olefin plant of Sibur Holding has a production capacity of 1.9 million tons per year.
Sibur is the largest integrated petrochemical company in Russia. It sells its products at home and in international markets in two business segments: olefins and polyolefins (polypropylene, polyethylene, etc.) as well as plastics, elastomers and intermediates (synthetic rubber, PET). In 2018, the holding reported $9.1 billion in revenues.
Amir Kabir Petrochemical Plant produces a variety of polymers, including high-density polyethylene, low-density polyethylene and linear low-density polyethylene. Its annual output is 700,000 tons. Last year, it made a profit of $100 million despite the new US sanctions.
The US imposed economic sanctions on Iran in August 2018, targeting key industrial and financial sectors. In the May of that year President Donald Trump tore up the landmark 2015 nuclear deal Iran had signed with the six world powers and in November Washington imposed a second round of sanctions, targeting the energy sector.
Key Role
The petrochemical industry has played a key role in domestic economic growth as it creates value-added.
There are 56 petrochemical companies in Iran producing 66 million tons of goods.
About 35 million tons including ethylene and propylene is used as feedstock in the domestic petrochemical complexes to produce derivatives such as plastics, detergents, solvents, paints, fertilizer, pesticides, synthetic fibers and rubbers. The rest is sold in international markets.
Sale of petrochemicals, both in the domestic and foreign markets, generates $17 billion a year.
The National Petrochemical Company has reported that with the launch of new petrochemical plants, now under construction, the annual petrochemical output will reach 100 million tons by 2022.
In the next year (March 2020-2021), 16 petrochemical plants will start production and seven more will be operational in the following year.
Iran’s petrochemical export is rising as the country seeks to offset the impact of hostile US economic sanctions, mainly against the oil, banking and shipping industries.
Petrochemicals constitute more than one-fourth of Iran’s non-oil exports with products destined to 30 countries, namely neighboring states, China, India, Southeast Asia and Europe.