The plant, which will be the core unit of the gigantic '10th Complex' to be built by the National Petrochemical Company of Iran (NPC), will produce about 1.3 million tonnes of ethylene per year.

Under terms of the contract, Technip-Coflexip will provide its inhouse ethylene technology and proprietary furnaces, engineering, equipment and material supply as well as supervising construction and commissioning of the plant.

The Iranian engineering outfit Nargan - 20% owned by Technip - will perform the engineering and procurement related to local equipment and materials while JAM Petrochemical - a subsidiary of NPC - will be responsible for construction, project execution and running of the plant.

Technip said the basic engineering of the project has already been completed with the delivery of last equipment scheduled for mid-2004 and the plant expected to come on stream by 2005. "This unit will deliver the largest output of ethylene to date in the world and will be the only large capacity steam cracker using both gas and liquid as feedstocks to produce ethylene and propylene," Technip said in a statement to the media.