(fibre2fashion) -- Kavian Petrochemical Complex, part of the world’s biggest petrochemical complex in Asalouyeh, has commenced production, a high-level official of Iranian National Petrochemical Company (NPC) has said.
During a media briefing, Reza Amiri, managing director of Kavian Petrochemical Complex said the new complex houses a capacity to process 2.58 million tons of feedstock to produce 2 million tons of ethylene per annum. He said the first phase of the complex with an annual production capacity of one million tons of ethylene has already been made provisionally operational.
He said Kavian Petrochemicals procures raw materials from different phases of South Pars, and due to delay in construction of phases 15-8 of South Pars, Kavian presently fetches ethane from phases 4, 5, 9 and 10 of South Pars.
The official said that as the new phases of the South Pars get ready to commence operations in June 2013, the second phase of Kavian complex would also be made operational.
He said seven petrochemical complexes fetch their ethylene feedstock from the complex through West Ethylene Pipeline, while a part of ethylene produced at Kavian plant is also transited to Arvand Petrochemicals for use as a raw input.
Following launch of this new ethylene production facility, the West Ethylene Pipeline has become the world’s largest petrochemical pipeline, he added.
Iran has significantly expanded the range and volume of its petrochemical products over the past few years, and the National Iranian Petrochemical Company has become the second largest producer and exporter of petrochemicals in the Middle East after Saudi Arabia.
The Islamic Republic exported a total of 18.2 million tons of petrochemical and polymer products, worth about USD 14.2 billion, to more than 60 countries in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended March 19, 2012).
MRC