India's RIL to Ship Ethane to India from its US Shale Plays

India's biggest private firm Reliance Industries will source 1.5 MMTPA of ethane from its US shale plays to feed crackers back home.

“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,” the company said in a statement earlier this week.  

The company has now 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.

Reliance has ordered six state-of-the-art Very Large Ethane Carriers (VLECs) which will be the largest vessels ever built in the world. The ships are expected to be delivered starting last quarter of 2016 in synchronisation with the readiness of terminal in North America, the company said.

Reliance is also building a world-scale receiving and storage facility in India for liquefied ethane and pipeline to deliver ethane to its crackers.

According to the company, 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.