A contract signed between France’s Technip-Coflexip and its Iranian partner Nargan with JAM Petrochemical Company in March 2001 has entered into force. It provides for the design, equipment and material supply and construction supervision of the world's largest steam cracker in Iran.
With a production capacity of 1.345 million tons a year of ethylene, this plant will be the core unit of the gigantic 10th Complex to be built by the National Petrochemical Company of Iran (NPC) at the industrial site of Asaluyeh, on the northern coast of the Persian Gulf.
Under the terms of this contract, worth about €330 million, Technip-Coflexip will provide its in-house ethylene technology and proprietary furnaces and will carry out engineering, supply of equipment and materials as well as supervision of construction and commissioning. The relevant engineering and procurement services will be mostly executed and managed from Technip-Coflexip's offices in Paris and in the Hague.
The Iranian engineering company Nargan—in which Technip-Coflexip has recently taken an interest of 20 percent as shareholder—will perform the engineering and procurement related to equipment and materials of local origin. JAM Petrochemical Company is the NPC's subsidiary responsible for construction, project execution and running the plant.
The basic engineering for this project has been already completed by Technip-Coflexip within the framework of an "Early Start Agreement" based on cash payments. Delivery of last equipment items is scheduled for mid 2004 and the plant is expected to come on stream within 2005.
This contract is being financed through multi-source export credit facilities from France, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain, which have been syndicated by banks under the leadership of Credit Agricole Indosuez.
This unit will deliver the largest output of ethylene to-date in the world and will be the only large capacity steam cracker using both gas and liquid as feedstock to produce ethylene and propylene. It will run with an unusually low energy and utilities consumption, demonstrating the high efficiency of Technip-Coflexip's steam-cracking process.
NPC has also awarded Technip-Coflexip a first contract for the nearby one million-ton-a-year steam cracker of the 9th Complex. With a workforce of about 18,000, Technip-Coflexip ranks among the top five in the field of oil and petrochemical engineering, construction and services.
Headquartered in Paris, the Group is listed in New York and in Paris. The main engineering and business centers of Technip-Coflexip are located in France, Italy, Germany, the UK, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands, the United States, Brazil, Abu-Dhabi, China, India, Malaysia and Australia.
The Group has industrial and construction facilities in France, Brazil, the UK, the USA, and Finland as well as a fleet of offshore construction vessels. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
