Ineos taps additional US ethane for European crackers

Ineos Europe AG, Switzerland, has signed a new purchase agreement with Consol Energy Inc., Pittsburgh, for US ethane to be exported to Ineos’s cracking operations in Europe.

Ethane will be transported through the Sunoco Logistics LP-operated Mariner East pipeline and terminal system and imported by sea for use in Ineos’s European cracker complexes, according to a recent release from Ineos.

Ethane supplies will start from 2015, Ineos said.

“This contract adds to our supply portfolio providing for long-term sourcing of advantageously priced US ethane for our European crackers,” Ineos Procurement and Supply Chain Director David Thompson said, adding that it will allow the company to continue to consolidate the competitiveness of Ineos’s European ethylene production.

Ineos signed a previous deal to ship ethane out of the Marcellus area in western Pennsylvania to its Europe crackers through the Mariner East pipeline in 2012 (OGJ Online, Oct. 8, 2012).

Ineos also said it’s presently conducting engineering studies for the construction of an ethane terminal in Grangemouth, Scotland, but neither a timetable nor further details on the project were disclosed.

Ineos’s olefins portfolio includes four key integrated cracker and derivative complexes located in Grangemouth, UK; Koln, Germany; Lavera, France; and Rafnes, Norway.