Iran Daily reported that the project to construct Mahabad Petrochemical Complex west Azarbaijan province has achieved a physical progress of 60%. The complex which is the largest economic unit of the country's North West is being constructed under Mehr e Mandegar plan.

So far, some IRR 1.12 trillion and EUR 233 million and forex facilities have been approved for the implementation of the project respectively. USD 35 million and EUR 139 million have been made available so far.

According to the report, a total of USD 642 million should be invested in the project. The tender to install the complex's equipment has also been held and the contractor is equipping the plant. The project is expected to come on stream in the H1 of the next Iranian year.

Once operational, the complex will produce 300,000 tonnes of light and heavy linear poly ethylene and 30,000 tonnes of butane per year. The complex's required raw material includes 324,000 tonnes of ethylene which will be supplied to the complex via nationwide ethylene transfer pipeline from Asalouyeh. Upon completion the project will be able to create 1,000 and 4,000 direct and indirect jobs respectively.

In February, Public Relations Department of National Petrochemical Company announced that petrochemical production capacity and the number of Iranian petrochemical complexes have witnessed eye catching growth in the last three decades since the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

It said that production capacity has increased 19 folds to reach 54.5 million tonnes compared to the figure for the pre Islamic Revolution era. Nominal petrochemical production capacity reached 51 million tonnes by the end of the Fourth Five Year Economic Development Plan from 3 million tonnes at the beginning of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Source - Iran Daily

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