Morvarid delays Iran cracker start-up due to technical issues

14 January 2010 09:29  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Morvarid Petrochemical, a subsidiary of Iran’s state-owned National Petrochemical Co, has postponed the start-up of its 500,000 tonne/year gas cracker at Assaluyeh due to technical issues, a source close to the company said on Thursday.

The cracker, also known as Olefins No 5, was initially planned to come on stream at the end of last year, but technical issues developed during the commissioning process and needed to be fixed, the source said.

Ethylene from Morvarid is expected to be supplied via pipeline to Arvand Petrochemical Co’s chlor-alkali complex at Bandar Imam, which was also not running yet, the source said.

“After the Morvarid cracker is up, we will bring the ethylene cargoes by vessel, as the pipeline is not ready yet,” the source added.

The Arvand complex includes a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plant, a vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) unit and an ethylene dichloride (EDC) facility, each of which has capacities of 340,000 tonnes/year.

A 635,000 tonne/year caustic soda line is also part of the project.

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By: Peh Soo Hwee
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