Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has signed agreements with Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd (MOL) to handle transportation of liquefied ethane from North America to India. MOL will supervise the construction of six very large ethane carriers (VLECs), which are being built by Samsung Heavy Industries Co Ltd and are expected to be delivered in the last quarter of 2016. MOL is one of the world’s largest and reputed shipping companies.
Reliance is planning to import 1.5 million tonnes a year of ethane from the United States as feedstock for its crackers. RIL is also building a world-scale receiving and storage facility in India for liquefied ethane and pipeline to deliver ethane to its crackers. With this strategic tie-up with MOL, Reliance said it has achieved a key milestone for the successful implementation of Ethane import project to feed crackers in India.
