Ineos Europe Entered Into 15-Year Shipping Agreements with Evergas

Ineos Europe said Wednesday it has entered into 15-year shipping agreements with Danish shipping company Evergas for the transportation of ethane into Europe from the US Mariner East project. 

The Mariner East pipeline, processing and terminaling project will interconnect the natural gas liquids resources in southwest Pennsylvania to the Marcus Hook facility. Ethane from Mariner East will become available in the first half of 2015. 

Under the shipping agreements, Evergas will build and operate new customized vessels that will transport ethane from Marcus Hook to Rafnes, Norway. 

"The new vessels, that will enter into service in 2015, are tailored to meet the specific needs of this project and will be built to the latest specifications matching highest environmental and efficiency performance measures," Ineos said in a statement. 

Ineos said in September that it had agreed a long-term ethane supply agreement with Range Resources Corp., an oil and natural gas producer in the eastern US and pioneer in the Marcellus Shale play. 

In December, Ineos said it would invest in the construction of a new ethane tank at its Rafnes site. An EPC contract with TGE Gas Engineering for the construction of a new tank and expanded infrastructure has been signed, and the facilities will be commissioned in 2015. Construction work has already started. 

Ineos group director Tom Crotty told Platts in October that it was planning to boost production capacity of the Rafnes steam cracker in Norway to accommodate ethane gas supply from the US. 

Crotty said the cracker is capable of reaching a "sensible" level of more than 700,000 mt/year from its current output of 560,000 mt/year. 

The gas will also be supplied to the 720,000 mt/year Grangemouth cracker in the UK. "We are investing in infrastructure at Grangemouth [in order for it] to source ethane for the cracker," he said. 

The smaller cracker, with a capacity of 340,000 mt/year, will continue to run on naphtha, he said.