The unit will produce 172,000 tons of ethane, 49,000 tons of propane, and 44,000 tons of light gas fuel per annum, Ali Aqbaba, advisor to the company"s managing director said.

Launched in 2004, the project to construct the unit has attracted investment worth $16.4 million in foreign exchange reserves plus Rls.40 billion in national currency for completion, he noted.

Aqabab added that the unit is to feed from gas supplied by Imam Khomeini Port Processing Company.

The National Petrochemical Company (NPC) has predicted that 35 petrochemical projects would come on stream by the end of Iranian calendar year 1393 (March 20, 2015).

Iran is the second largest petrochemical producer in the Persian Gulf, standing after Saudi Arabia, and will retain its position until 2010.

The inauguration of the projects in question by 2015 would considerably promote its status not only in the Persian Gulf region, but in the world.

Some parts of the mentioned projects, including polyethylene, methanol, and olefin units are carried out in collaboration with foreign enterprises.

The NPC Managing Director Gholam-Hossein Nejabat announced that the methanol unit of Zagros Petrochemical Complex would come on stream in the near future and the urea and the ammoniac unit of Ghadir Petrochemical Complex would become operational by the end of current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2007).

According to Nejabat, the methanol unit’s annual production is 1.65 million tons and Ghdair’s unit will produce one million tons of urea and 650 thousand tons of ammoniac per annum.

The deputy minister for petrochemical affairs added Zagros also had a complementary unit with a 1.65 million tons capacity that would be put into operation in mid-March 2008, bringing its annual methanol production capacity to 3.3 million tons.

“The project has certain features as an auto-thermal reformer reactor has been applied to crack natural gas by pure oxygen and a cooled reactor gas is used in the methanol production process,” he added.

The NPC head made the remarks on the sidelines of a ceremony to sign a contract with domestic companies on Kermanshah polymer utility plan worth 58 million euros.

“Although the local companies are duty-bound the implement the Kermanshah project in 30 months, they have vowed to do the job sooner than the deadline in a bid to facilitate better coordination between petrochemical complexes,” said Nejabat.

The Kermanshah complex would be fed by the ethylene pipeline in the western Iran and it would produce 300 thousand tons of heavy polyethylene per year, he added.

“By March 20, 2007, the country will totally produce 15 million tons of petrochemical products and will export six million tons,” said the managing director of National Petrochemical Company, adding the exports would fetch the country three billion dollars.

According to him, Borzouyeh Petrochemical Complex, the world’s largest aromatic complex, would officially start its production later in 2007 although it had already began its experimental production and four products of the complex were exported to foreign countries.

Nejabat said, “Two months after the inauguration of Borzouyeh Petrochemical Complex, Jam Petrochemical Complex (10th Olefin) with an annual 1.3 million ton of ethylene production capacity and its downstream polyethylene units will become operational.

“In Sept. 2007, Arya Sassol Petrochemical Complex (9th Olefin) with an annual one million ton of ethylene production capacity and its downstream units will come on stream.”

The Fourth Development Plan had allocated 12.5 billion dollars for petrochemical projects, recalled the ranking official, adding the projects were underway according to the Fourth Plan.

Iran Petrochemical Commercial Company (IPCC) said that 5.51 million tons of petrochemical products worth 2.467 billion dollars had been exported within the first 10 months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2006-January 20, 2007).

According to the IPCC, 1,372 tons of liquefied gas and nine tons of polyethylene waste were exported to different states, making them the major and minor products.

The company’s goods were exported mainly to China and India with 13.7 and 14.1 percent as well as 14.4 and 9.8 percent shares in terms of weight and value respectively.

The IPCC shares in the Central Asian, North American, and African states were the lowest, standing at two and 0.8 percent in terms of weight and worth.

The IPCC managing director announced that more than 97 percent of petrochemical companies’ products had been sold on the Internet since the Iranian calendar month of Mehr (started Sept. 23, 2006).

Mohammad-Ebrahim Mohammadi told PIN the IPCC website’s assessment system indicated that the level of clients’ satisfaction was 57 percent higher when compared to the figure registered at the time of previous sales procedures.

“Remote sales system has been designed and developed according to the customers’ needs,” added the managing director.

Petrochemical products with high valued added could be exported abroad in case domestic downstream industries were developed, said Mohammadi, adding the measure would also create job opportunities.

He said the IPCC products were sold in cash and by installment inside the country.

IPCC was established in 1989 as the commercial arm of National Petrochemical Company (NPC) with the aim of having a strong presence in local and international markets and supplying the requirements of the NPC production complexes.

With the development of Iran "s petrochemical industry and the substantial increase in the NPC production capacity, IPCC restructured itself to market NPC products.

To this end, it has expanded and strengthened its marketing network inside outside Iran.