Venezuelan President was Accompanied by Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and Minister of Industries and Mines Alireza Tahmasbi, and was welcomed by his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Minister of Petroleum Seyed Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh at the Persian Gulf International Airport.

Based on agreements Iran and Venezuela reached in the energy sector, the executive operations of the joint methanol project with an annual production capacity of 1.65 million tons kick off during the visit of Venezuelan president to Iran.

Iran and Venezuela would make a 1.4 billion dollar joint investment in construction of two methanol units.

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez attend the groundbreaking ceremony of joint petrochemical plant in Assalouyeh in southern Iran.

The methanol plant’s executive operations kick off today and the unit is to produce 1.65 million tons of product per year.

The Most Extensive Aromatic Unit

Ahamdinejad also inaugurates Borzouyeh Petrochemical Complex, the world’s largest aromatic producer, in the zone today.

The complex is to yield 1.28 million tons of main products including paraxylene, orthoxylene, and benzene as well as 3.178 million tons of byproducts such as light and heavy hydrocarbons, slice of pentane, raffinate, and liquefied gas per annum.

The products are used as raw material for production of polyesters, synthetic fibers, paints, resins, disposable bottles, pharmaceutical compounds, and pesticides.

Phases 1-5 of South Pars field meet the feedstock of Borzouyeh Petrochemical Complex, providing it with 4.5 million tons of gas condensates annually.

Borzouyeh Petrochemical Complex (fourth aromatic) had been established in a plot of land with 61 hectares.