A joint venture comprising Iran’s National Petrochemical Company (NPC), Thailand’s Siam Cement Group and National Petrochemical Company Of Thailand, and Japan’s Itochu Corporation, has awarded a $225mn contract to Mitsui of Japan and Iran’s Rampco to build a high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plant at Assaluyeh. The joint venture, which has been designated Mehr Petrochemical Company, was formed to build a 300,000 tons/year HDPE plant at Assaluyeh, separate from the Pars Special Economic/Energy Zone (Parsee) under development there by NPC, but receiving ethylene feedstock from a pipeline grid linking the four worldscale crackers of the Olefins 9-12 complexes with a string of PE plants to be developed in Western Iran (MEES, 13 June).
An NPC statement on 15 June said that the plant would be built under an engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning (EPCC) contract: “Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding (MES) will perform the engineering work, which is based on the slurry technology from Mitsui Chemical Inc. MES is also responsible for equipment procurement and supply, commissioning and start-up work. Rampco is responsible for the construction and pre-commissioning of the plant. The project will be completed in less than three years.” Mehr Petrochemical Company equity shares are: NPC 40%; Siam Cement 38%; National Petrochemical Company Of Thailand 12%; and Itochu 10%.
