Addressing a virtual ceremony to officially launch 3 petrochemical projects on Thursday, May 20, Zangeneh said construction of 40 petrochemical plants is under way which will bring the country’s annual petrochemical production capacity to 133. The average progress of these projects is about 30%.

The Minister of Petroleum announced the start of operations of mixed feed megaprojects in the coming weeks, adding Hormoz plant with a capacity of 5.8 million tons and Aria Oil and Gas with a capacity of 4.8 million tons are among those projects. These plans will come online by 2027.

The commissioned projects were Sabalan Petrochemical Plant, Masjed Soleiman Petrochemical Plant and Elixir Helal of Assaluyeh.

Sabalan Petrochemical Plant

Sabalan Petrochemical Plant has been launched with an annual production capacity of 1,650,000 tons of methanol worth $412 million.

A supplier of AA grade methanol, the plant came online as another project in the second petrochemical leap of the country.

Sabalan Petrochemical Plant has been built with a total investment of $406 million in Phase 2 of Pars Energy Special Economic Zone. The project was financed by shareholders, Chinese credit line financing and short-term facilities.

Sepehr Energy Company with 99.96% stocks is the main shareholder of the project. Dena Petrochemical Company, Siraf Energy Investment Company, SECO International Trade Company and Ghotb Sepehr Lavan Petrochemical Company are other shareholders of this plant.

The feedstock required for Sabalan Petrochemical Plant is one million tons of natural gas per year, which is supplied by Damavand Petrochemical Company, and the annual sales value of the complex's products is estimated at $412 million.

By building the project, 4,200 jobs were created during its construction and 834 jobs during its operation.

Masjed Soleiman Petrochemical Plant

The second project that was launched via videoconference on Thursday was Masjed Soleiman Petrochemical Plant.

It is built with an annual production capacity of 1,755,000 tons of urea and ammonia.

The Masjed Soleiman urea and ammonia project is another of the projects of the second leap of the petrochemical industry whose construction began in March 2015 with the aim of producing 680,000 tons of ammonia and 1.075 million tons of urea annually.

It is fed with 861 million cubic meters of natural gas per year and is built on a 50-hectare land in Haft Shahidan Region of ​​Masjed Soleiman, the southwestern Khuzestan province.

The plant is estimated to generate $268 million a year by selling its products.

The investment company of the National Pension Fund Company possesses 66.55% of the plant’s stocks and the private sector holds 33.45% of its shares.

The $850 million capital for building this complex was provided from the shareholders and the credit line of China.

Masjed Soleiman Petrochemical has created employment for 5,000 people during construction and 1,500 during operation.

The ammonia unit of this complex has been licensed by Switzerland’s Casale and the urea and granulation units have been licensed by Japan’s Toyo.

The main contractor of the project is Wuhan Engineering Company of China and its management consultant is Paravar Engineering Company, the representative of the license holders of Petrochemical Design and Engineering Company.

Elixir Halal Assaluyeh

Elixir Halal Assaluyeh Company, as the first pentane and hexane production unit in Iran’s petrochemical industry, with a total annual production capacity of 50,000 tons, was officially put into operation by order of the President.

Construction of the project started in Assaluyeh in back in 2018 with the aim of producing 40,000 tons of hexane and 10,000 tons of pentane annually.

The sales value of the company's products is estimated at $40 million annually.

The $48 million investment in the project was provided by Takht Jamshid Petrochemical Company as the main shareholder of the plant.

The plant needs 260,000 tons of raffinate to produce pentane and hexane, which is received from Nouri Petrochemical Plant.

Hexane is used in heavy polyethylene production units with slurry system, oil extraction, pharmaceutical and industrial units.

Pentane is used in petrochemical industry as a blowing agent in expanded polystyrene, insecticides and detergent industries.

Elixir Halal Assaluyeh project created employment for 600 people during its construction and 120 people during operation.