Arak Petrochemical Company (ARPC, Tehran / Iran; www.arpc-ir.net), a subsidiary of Iran´s National Petrochemical Company (NPC, Tehran; www.nipc.net), has signed an agreement with Basell (NL-2132 Hoofddorp; www.basell.com) to use its “Spheripol” and “Hostalen” processes in the expansion of two polyolefins plants already operating on the BASF-Shell joint venture´s technology. The new capacity, for which no start-up date has been revealed, will bring to 2m the volume of pololyefins capacity on stream or under construction in Iran using Basell processes, said Kaspar Evertz, senior vice president for licensing and technology transfer.

Output of ARPC´s polypropylene plant using the Spheripol process will rise by 50%, from 50,000 t/y to 75,000 t/y, and its product portfolio will be widened. Engineering work will be handled by Italian contractor Tecnimont (I-20124 Milano; www.tecnimont.it) and Iranian partner Nargan Engineering (Tehran; www.nargan.com). Output capability of the polyethylene plant using the Hostalen process will increase by 40%. Engineering will be carried out by German engineering contractor Uhde (D-44141 Dortmund; www.uhde.biz) and its local partner, Sazeh.

Basell recently signed a licence agreement with Saudi Arabia´s National Petrochemical Industrial Company (Riyadh) covering a 400,00 t/y PP plant to go on stream in 2007 at Yanbu Industrial City / Saudi Arabia, as well as a contract with China´s Jilin Petrochemical Corp for a 300,000 t/y HDPE plant due for start-up in 2005 at Jilin / China.