IRAQ - The Petrochemical Sector.

Before the 1991 war, Baghdad had impressive plans for its petrochemicals industry. Baathist officials in 1995 said that, after the sanctions, Iraq may become one of the world's largest exporters of petrochemicals.

One of the targets for allied bombing in January 1991 was the 1.5m t/y petrochemical complex at Al-Musayyib, in the centre, which was intended to become an industrial zone matching those of Baiji to the north or Khor Al-Zubair to the south. Technical teams have managed to rehabilitate several of the damaged plants which now meet domestic requirements for a range of plastics. But, as with oil products, the quality has been questionable since most units were only partly restored. Iraq has two main petrochemical complexes, one at Khor Al-Zubair near Basra, called PC-1, and the other under construction at Musayib, 60 km south of Baghdad called PC-2. Both owned and run by the State Enterprise for Petrochemicals (SEP).

PC-1 - Khor Al Zubair - was badly damaged in the previous war, by March 1991 leaving Iraq with no thermo-plastic building blocks. It resumed limited operations in February 1992. The complex was mothballed on its completion in 1980 because of the 1980-88 war with Iran. It went on stream in early 1989 to produce: 130,000 t/y of ethane-based ethylene; 110,000 t/y of ethylene dichloride; 60,000 t/y of LDPE; 30,000 t/y of HDPE; 66,000 t/y of vinyl chloride monomer (VCM); and 60,000 t/y of PVC.

PC-1 was built by Lummus Crest of the US and Thyssen Rheinstahl Technik of Germany. It cost over $1 bn.

PC-2 - Musayib: Construction of this complex, in central Iraq, had been postponed since the early 1980s because of the war with Iran. Soon after Iran accepted the ceasefire in August 1988, SEP went ahead with the project. A UK unit of Bechtel was contracted as a technical consultant and did the initial studies. The complex was nearly complete as the 1991 war began. Allied bombing severely damaged its units. It was brought on stream partly in October 1992, with Iraqi engineers having done the designs. Its ethylene unit was to have a 250,000 t/y capacity compared to 420,000 t/y planned.

Musayib was being developed as an industrial centre, with West Qurna field to provide crude oil, fuel and gas feedstocks. Under pre-war plans, the first phase of PC-2 was to cost up to $2.5 bn and was due to come on stream in the second half of 1991. It was to have the following capacities:

- 250,000 t/y of ethylene, - 160,000 t/y of low-density polyethylene, - 55,000 t/y of ethylene glycol, - 20,000 t/y of ethylene oxide, - 100,000 t/y of polypropylene, - 70,000 t/y of butadiene, - 145,000 t/y of styrene monomer, - 80,000 t/y of polystyrene, - 80,000 t/y of styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) and polybutadiene rubber, - 60,000 t/y of MTBE, - 15,000 t/y of butene-1, - 15,000 t/y of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), and - 5,000 of styrene acrylonitrile copolymer (SAC).

The complex was to have an aromatics plant with a nameplate capacity of more than 115,000 t/y of benzene, 20,000 t/y of toluene, plus a 100,000 t/y alkylation unit and a 30,000 t/y catalytic condensation (polymer gasoline) unit.

In 1989 PC-2 was taken over by the Technical Corps for Special Projects (Techcorps). It gave the main process contracts. Construction contracts for all but three units went to the following: Technip (France) for the polyethylene unit; Tecnimont (Italy) for the polypropylene unit; a Japanese partnership of Toyo Engineering (TEC) and Nichimen Corp. for the ABS, SAN and butadiene units; TPL (Italy) for the ethylene glycol, ethylene oxide, MTBE, alkylation and polymer gasoline units; CTIP (Italy) for the butene unit; and Snamprogetti (Italy) for the aromatics plant. The complex was to be equipped with advanced instrumentation and computerised control systems supplied by OAPEC's Bahrain-based Arab Engineering Systems & Control Co. under a $25m technical aid contract with Techcorps.

Lummus Crest won the contract for the ethylene plant, for which it was to provide its SRT technology. It did basic and detailed engineering, procurement and construction supervision. It was also supplying technology and basic engineering for the polystyrene (which was to use the Monsanto/Lummus process) and the styrene monomer units (to have the Huntsman/Lummus process).

Basic engineering and process technology were being supplied by Scientific Design (US) for the ethylene glycol and ethylene oxide units, Himont (US) for the polypropylene unit, BP Chemicals (UK) for the polyethylene unit, TEC (Japan) for the SBR, PBR, ABS and SAN units, TEC/Nippon Zeon (Japan) for the butadiene unit, Institut Francais du Petrole for the butene-1 and MTBE units, and UOP (US) for the aromatics plant and the alkylation and polymer gasoline units.