During a virtual ceremony held on Thursday, Dr. Rouhani inaugurated the ethane extraction unit of Parsian Sepehr Refinery and two important projects for production of catalysts for the petrochemical industry.

The ethane extraction project of Parsian Sepehr Refinery is one of the 17 petrochemical projects that were put on agenda of the industry last year but was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite intensification of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was an obstacle in the way of projects, until the end of last calendar year, projects such as Miandoab, Kaveh, Lorestan Petrochemical catalyst production plant, Kimia Pars Middle East, Bushehr, Lordegan, potassium sulfate plant of Urmia, Hegmataneh, the second phase of Ilam Petrochemical plant, Bidboland Persian Gulf Gas Refinery and Kangan Petro-refinery were among the plans that came online throughout the year.

The ethane extraction project of Parsian Sepehr Refinery is one of the remaining projects from last year which came on stream on Thursday, April 15.

The plant is fed by Parsian Refinery, and Tose’e Energy Tadbir Company has invested $1 billion in the project which is expected to generate $1,000 million annually.

The project has been developed with 3.3 million tons per year of annual production capacity and generated 5,300 jobs during its installation and nearly 1,000 during its operation.

The two catalyst projects that also came online are among the knowledge-based projects of the petrochemical industry.

The two catalytic projects include the catalysts needed for production of polypropylene and heavy polyethylene (CX).

In catalytic projects, what is important is the development of Iranian technical knowhow, because for the first time in the country that production of such catalysts has been made possible and it is a matter of pride that the technical savvy of catalyst production is being developed by the Petrochemical Research and Technology Company (PRTC), and this will make Iran needless of importing these two types of catalysts.

Iranian petrochemical industry consumed about $270 million of catalysts per year.

There are 40 types of catalysts used in the industry of which 19 have so far been localized in Iran and 9 others will be introduced by the end of the current calendar year, which began on March 20, 2022.

The remaining 12 types of catalysts are being studied and will hopefully be added to the list of Iranian catalysts in the coming years.

Moreover, Sabalan methanol, Masjed Soleiman urea and Exir Halal projects are in the final stages of construction and will be added to the petrochemical complexes of the country in the coming weeks.