Mahmoud Zirakchianzadeh told Shana that development of the massive project was handed over to the executive headquarters of Farman Imam back in 2014 with the aim of recovering ethane and heavier ethane components, and the first letters of credit for the project were opened from the National Development Fund of Iran in November 2016.

The plant was launched by Iranian experts and was officially inaugurated on Thursday, April 15, by the order of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

He added that Parsian Sepehr refinery project has been developed with the state-of-the-art technologies by relying on the expertise of local experts; the plant is constructed in two parts: ethane extraction unit at Mohr Site in Mohr County and Parsian Sepehr refining complex as final ethane separation unit at Assaluyeh Site.

Zirakchianzadeh, noting that 16 million tons of annually produced methane is one of the largest environmental benefits of this project and is allocated to the city gas distribution network from the Mohr Site, said: “The ethane produced in this site will be used for final separation and annual production of 3.3 million tons of ethane, propane, butane and gas condensate as the main product to be transported to Assaluyeh Site by an 18-inch pipeline with a length of roughly 63 km.”

He emphasized that for construction of the pipeline, horizontal directional drilling in the mountains (HDD) was adopted for the first time in the country and about 6 million cubic meters of mountain digging operations were carried out.