Pakistan has several key raw materials available for chemical and petrochemical industries, including oil, natural gas, metals, minerals, coal, salt, air, and water. For petrochemical industries specifically, natural gas processing provides methane, ethane, propane and butanes. Petroleum refineries produce naphtha, benzene, toluene and xylenes. Gas oil is also obtained from petroleum refineries. These raw materials can be used directly or cracked through steam cracking to produce important intermediate petrochemical feedstocks like ethylene, propylene, butenes, butadiene and benzene.

1. Raw materials available in
Pakistan
for various Chemical and
Petrochemical Industries
EHTISHAM UL HAQ

2. Raw Materials for Chemical
Industries
• Oil
• Natural Gas
• Metals
• Minerals
• Coal
• Salt
• Air
• Water

3. Raw Materials for Petrochemical
Industries
• Methane, ethane, propane and butanes: Obtained
primarily from natural gas processing plants.
• Naphtha obtained from petroleum refineries.
• Benzene, toluene and xylenes, as a whole referred to
as BTX and primarily obtained from petroleum
refineries by extraction from the reformate produced
in catalytic reformers.
• Gas oil obtained from petroleum refineries.

4. Raw Materials for Petrochemical
Industries
• Methane and BTX are used directly as feedstocks for producing
petrochemicals.
• Ethane, propane, butanes, naphtha and gas oil serve as optional
feedstocks for steam-assisted thermal cracking plants referred to
as steam crackers that produce the intermediate petrochemical
feedstocks.
• Intermediate petrochemical feedstocks:
• Ethylene
• Propylene
• Butenes and butadiene
• Benzene

5. Raw Materials for Petrochemical
Industries