Reliance Industries Completes Ethane Importing Plant In Dahej
The Dahej project will improve cost competitiveness of existing facilities, RIL says.
Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) successfully commissioned the world's largest ethane importing plant at its Dahej manufacturing facility in Gujarat on Wednesday.
The project was completed in less than three years and will allow the company to import large volumes of ethane from the North American market, the company said in a filing on the stock exchanges. The imported ethane will be used as raw material or feedstock to produce petrochemicals, the filing added.
The imported ethane will also be supplied to RIL’s other petrochemical facilities or crackers in Hazira and Nagothane.
“This will improve the cost competitiveness of our existing crackers and enable us to optimise the portfolio in a volatile market environment,” RIL said in the filing. It will also reduce the company’s dependence on other raw materials derived from oil and gas, the prices of which remain volatile, it added.
Ethane, a natural gas component, is expected to be produced in large volumes in North America due to the shale gas revolution, which has generated an abundance of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and cooking gas LPG.
Gas (India) Ltd. (GAIL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (BPCL), Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (IOC) and Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd. (HPL) are other major petrochemical facilities in India. Reliance Industries is the first among them to use imported ethane as a raw-material in their crackers.
