SHANA - The construction project of Marjan Petrochemical Plant is nearly complete (96%) and the plant will be ready for official inauguration soon, managing director of the facility said.






Hassan Beigi said the plant is now in its pre-startup phase and its flare stacks were lit this month.

"All the equipment and items required for launching the plant are installed and are ready for startup," he said.

Beigi said trial production of methanol by the plant will begin within the next three months, adding an investment of nearly 465 million euros and IRR 5,500b was made for construction of the project which was all procured by private investors.

Once fully operational, the facility will supply 1.65 million tons of methanol annually.

Marjan Petrochemical Plant is one of the three major petrochemical projects expected to come on-stream this calendar year (which began on March 21) along with Bushehr and Kaveh petrochemical projects.

Kaveh Petrochemical Plant is the largest methanol unit in Iran and the Middle East.

The three projects will more than double Iran's methanol output and bring it to over 10 million tons annually.