Reliance commissions world's largest ethane project

Reliance is the first company to globally conceptualise large-scale imports of ethane from North America as feedstock for its cracker portfolio in India. The project involved seamless integration of several elements across a complex infrastructure value chain. This includes securing ethane refrigeration capacity in the US Gulf coast; delivery of dedicated very large ethane carriers (VLECs) to carry ethane from the US Gulf Coast to the West Coast of India; construction of ethane receipt and handling facilities; and laying pipelines and upgrading crackers (to receive ethane) at Dahej, Hazira and Nagothane manufacturing facilities.

This successful start-up underlines Reliance’s ability to build world-scale capacities and infrastructure using complex technologies, such as marine transportation of cryogenic ethane, handling of ethane at (-) 90 °C, supply of ethane to the crackers in an energy efficient way and pump ethane from Dahej to other locations. The execution of this project at such a scale and magnitude is a first in the world.

Owing to exponential growth of the shale gas industry in North America in the past five years, ethane has become one of the most competitively priced feedstock for US crackers.

The supply of ethane to crackers at Dahej, Hazira and Nagothane will provide feedstock security and flexibility, enabling Reliance to select the most optimal feed mix based on market conditions. This will improve the cost competitiveness of the company’s existing crackers and help it optimise the portfolio in a volatile market environment. (RKS)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India