“The complex recruits Iranian and young educated workforce, without recourse to foreigners. We have had 11 million man/hour incident-free work on MEG unit to put it into operation. This mark's a big achievement,” he added.

He said more than 80 percent of parts and equipment used in the facility are made inside the country. The MEG unit of Iran’s Morvarid Petrochemical, a subsidiary of state-owned National Petrochemical Co, started up a 500,000 tonne/year gas cracker at Assalouyeh in the Iranian month of Day (December 21, 2015-January 21, 2016).

The cracker, also known as Olefins No 5, was likely to operate at only around 50% of its capacity in the initial stage due to limited gas feedstock from the South Pars gas field, the source said.

He said the facility produced 185,000 tons of products this year, 15,000 tons of which supplied to domestic market. 

The MEG unit can export as much as 350,000 tons/year product if necessary feedstock is supplied, he added. 

The manager said since its operation, the MEG unit exported as much as 260,000 tons of its products. 

The feedstock of the unit are 340,000 tons/year ethylene and 368,000 tons/year oxygen, yielding MEG, DEG and TEG, he concluded.