Iran will connect eight more petrochemical complexes to its state-of-the-art ethylene transfer pipeline as the country seeks to increase production and create more jobs in the petrochemical sector.
Head of Iran’s National Petrochemical Company (NPC) said on Sunday that the supply of ethylene to the West Ethylene Pipeline will increase by two thirds to 3.5 million tons per year by 2025.
Behzad Mohammadi, an oil minister deputy, said that beefing up capacity of the pipeline will provide feedstock for 13 petrochemical plants located in western Iran.
Mohammadi said the expansion would increase the value of products manufactured in the plants connected to pipeline to $3.7 billion.
He said the project will also create some 2,000 permanent jobs in the petrochemical sector.
West Ethylene Pipeline is the world’s longest of its type with a length of 2,800 kilometers that starts from the energy hub of Assaluyeh on the Persian Gulf and ends in petrochemical plants in the West Azerbaijan province on the border with Turkey.
The NPC awarded a contract for operation and maintenance of the pipeline on Sunday to OICO, a subsidiary company of the Iranian Oil Ministry.
The deal comes two years after the NPC restored its ownership of the pipeline after some seven years the facility had been controlled by private-sector operators.
NPC figures show West Ethylene Pipeline has created 15,000 permanent jobs in 11 provinces it passes through. It currently feeds and receives ethylene from 13 petrochemical complexes on its route.
Oil Ministry figures show the pipeline has supplied around 11 million tons of ethylene to petchem plants since it came on line in 2012. The value of products manufactured using the feedstock supplied by the pipeline is currently estimated $2 billion per year.