Reliance to import 1.5 million tonnes of ethane a year from US

NEW DELHI: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is implementing a project to import 1.5 million tonnes of ethane to feed its crackers in India, taking advantage of the US shale gas revolution. “The project will significantly improve the long term competitiveness of our cracker portfolio through dedicated feedstock, enhanced margins, higher capacity and end-to-end integration,” the company said in a statement.

Ethane is the second-largest component of natural gas after methane and it has become the dominant feedstock for crackers replacing liquids in last five years.

“Reliance’s investments in shale gas and its existing crackers portfolio in India are a natural fit for sourcing ethane from North America and shipping it to India to attain long term feedstock competitiveness,” RIL said. Reliance has executed storage and capacity agreements for liquefaction and export of ethane with a North American terminal, which is expected to commence operations in the second half of 2016, it said.

RIL has also ordered six state-of-the-art very large ethane carriers (VLECs) which will be the largest vessels ever built in the world, it said. “The ships are expected to be delivered starting last quarter of 2016 in synchronisation with the readiness of terminal in North America,” it said.

Reliance is also building facilities in India for liquefied ethane and pipeline to deliver ethane to its crackers. “Reliance will be upgrading its crackers to maximise cracking of ethane, have maximum operational flexibility and capability to optimise feed stocks with complete control of supply chain,” it said.