TEHRAN (PIN) – Pars Petrochemical Complex produced more than 200 thousand tons of propane and butane in the first quarter of the current Iranian year (March 21 to June 21, 2007).

The complex managing director said, “Of the figure, 190 thousand tons was exported to foreign countries, earning the country over 100 million dollars.”
National Petrochemical Company (NPC) quoted Ali-Asghar Zarafshan as reporting that Pars Petrochemical Complex’s exports in the previous year fetched the country 185 million dollars.
The managing director added the complex’s ethane unit produced 980 thousand tons of propane and 570 thousand tons of butane per year.
“The products are among the world’s highest quality petrochemicals, of which 99 percent was exported to the Southeast Asian states in the past month,” said Zarafshan.
He added the thane unit also produced over 86 thousand tons of light naphtha, meeting some part of Jam Petrochemical Complex’s feedstock.
The official said domestic manufacturers had constructed and provided the complex with two propane and butane tanks with 60 and 30 thousand ton storage capacities respectively.
“Pars Petrochemical Complex’s annual feedstock amounts to 20 thousand tons of natural gas that is supplied by the first phase of South Pars field through two 32 inch pipelines and by the phases 2 and 3 through a 48 inch pipeline,” said Zarafshan.
He said the unit’s controlling system consisted of fieldbus, PLC, and DSC systems.
According to the managing director, Pars Petrochemical Complex produces some 1.65 million tons of ethane yearly, of which more than 12 thousand tons is injected into the pipeline that feeds Arya Sasol Petrochemical Complex (Olefin 9) and 390 thousand tons goes to Jam Petrochemical Complex (Olefin 10).
Totally 2.519 million tons of petrochemical products was exported from March 21 to July 22, 2007.
The export-bound products fetched the country 1.383 billion dollars.
Liquefied gas weighing 800 thousand tons was the main commodity Iran exported during the period.
The value of petrochemicals exported in the first quarter of Iranian year stood at 981 million dollars. Iran Petrochemical Commercial Company (IPCC) exported over 1.7 million tons of different types of petrochemical products to the international markets.
Methanol, ethylene, propylene, butadiene, dichloride ethylene, LAB, and PTA constitute the main basic products the country exports to foreign countries.
Propane, butane, pyrolyse gasoline, pentane plus, and heavy slice are the export-bound by-products and fuels while benzene, paraxylene, and heavy slice of aromatic are the main aromatic products Iran exports.
Ammoniac, ammonium nitrate, sulfur, and sulfuric acid are categorized in the fertilizer products and light and heavy polyethylene products, melamine crystal, PVC, and PET are the polymeric products that the country is considering exporting.
Iran is among the world’s top producer of urea, ammoniac, methanol, and ethylene.
Japan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), China, India, South Korea, Italy, Singapore, and Taiwan were the main target markets for exporting Iran’s petrochemical products in the previous year.
These countries accounted for 86 and 80 percent of Iran’s export-bound petrochemicals in terms of weight and value respectively.
Of about five million tons of petrochemical products Iran exported from March 21, 2006 to March 20, 2007, over 71 percent was transported to Asia, 21 percent to the Middle East, and about 7 percent to Europe.
At present, Iran is producing 67 kinds of petrochemical products and the variety, due to downstream production process, will be greater.
Iran’s Fifth Five-Year Socioeconomic Development Plan (2010-2015) has planned for increasing the annual petrochemical production from 55 million tons to 158 million tons.
According to the initial estimate, domestic petrochemical output will witness a 33.7 million ton increase during the period.
Based on the plan, 27 projects will become operational through investing 12.325 billion dollars by 2015.
Petrochemical products accounted for the highest share of non-oil goods Iran exported in the past Iranian calendar year (March 21, 2006 to March 20, 2007).
Totally 42.2 percent of the weight and 38.6 percent of the value of exported non-oil products belonged to petrochemicals. The country exported 14,236,800 tons of petrochemical products, valued at 6.11 billion dollars, during the yearlong period, showing 115.5 and 140.8 percent increases in terms of weight and worth respectively when compared to those in their preceding year.
The country has produced 3.141 million tons of different types of petrochemical products from March 21 to May 21, 2007.
Iran will turn out to be a large producer of aromatic, ethylene, and methanol products by the end of Iranian calendar year of 1393 (March 20, 2015), according to predictions