NPC and Total May Build Gas Cracker in Iran

With France’s Total, another Western petrochemicals player is moving back into Iran now that sanctions have been lifted. Various units of the vast group are seen to be negotiating and in several cases inking new agreements with Iranian partners.

The reported “sightings” include a deal for the daily purchase of 160,000 barrels of Iranian crude oil, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the country’s Research Institute of Petroleum Industry (RIPI) and most recently a MoU with National Petrochemical Company (NPC) to set up a petrochemical complex.

According to reports from Middle East news agencies, the MoU with NPC was inked during the visit of a high-profile French delegation to Iran in mid-March. Total also has agreed to initiate appraisal studies for construction of the project, the Iran Daily reported.

A steam-cracker fed by ethane, naphtha, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and other liquid feedstock and downstream processing plants are said to be planned at the heart of the complex that would be built at a coastal location and supply domestic as well as international markets.