“Construction of 18 petrochemical units have been planned in the complex. After completion, Chabahar city in the southeast will become Iran’s third petrochemical hub after Mahshahr in the southwest and Asalouyeh in the south,” IRNA quoted Alireza Moniri Abyaneh as saying.
The first phase of the complex, including six units, is expected to come online next year
The complex is being built on 1,200 hectares and when the first phase is fully operational, it will have an output capacity of 8.5 million tons per annum, including 1.65 million tons of methanol, he said. Portions of the output will serve as feedstock for petrochemical companies plus downstream industries and the rest will be exported.
The petrochemical complexes will help improve the economy of the underdeveloped Sistan-Baluchestan and Hormozgan provinces.
Moreover, 20 hectares of land in Shahid Beheshti Port in Chabahar, about 20 kilometers from Mokran Petrochemical Complex, has been considered as the terminal to transport products, Moniri Abyaneh noted.
Chabahar is 645 kilometers south of the provincial capital Zahedan in the southeast.
Iran's massive crude oil and natural gas reserves have contributed to economic development in the southwestern regions off the Persian Gulf, but areas bordering the Oman Sea in the southeast have hardly benefited from the wealth.
Stretching along the Oman Sea, the Mokran region has not developed into the expected trade and shipping center, save for the port city of Jask that is slowly turning into an oil and gas terminal.
New oil loading facilities on the Mokran coast will significantly reduce shipping costs and spare lengthy voyage through the Strait of Hormoz all the way to Iran's main oil and gas terminals, in Asalouyeh, Kharg Island and Mahshahr on the westernmost side of the Persian Gulf.
Construction of Jask Export Terminal has registered 40% progress and is due to be completed by next March.
Jask Terminal
Work is in progress to build the Goureh-Jask crude oil pipeline, which stretches 1,000 kilometers from Goureh in Bushehr Province, to Jask in Hormozgan Province, where the largest oil export terminal after Kharg is being constructed.
Approximately $300 million has been invested in the project, and another $850 million is needed to finish the job.
When ready, Jask Oil Terminal will store 30 million barrels of crude oil and export one million.
Kharg Terminal in the Persian Gulf has been Iran’s main oil export terminal for decades. Jask will be another major site with the advantage that oil tankers need not pass through the narrow and permanently clogged Strait of Hormuz.