Reliance Industries (RIL) on Thursday said it had sealed shipping agreements with one of the world’s largest and reputed shipping companies, Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL), for transporting liquefied ethane from North America to India.
MOL will supervise the construction of six very large ethane carriers (VLECs) ordered by RIL. It will also operate and manage the vessels after they are built and delivered. RIL, following this strategic tie-up with MOL, has achieved a key milestone in the successful implementation of its ethane import project to feed crackers in India, the Mukesh Ambani-promoted firm said in a statement.
RIL plans to ship 1.5 million tonne of ethane a year from its US shale joint ventures to its chemical complex in Gujarat, said agency reports.
Mitsui, in a separate statement, said the VLECs, being built by Samsung, are expected to be delivered in the last quarter of 2016.
Samsung will deliver the ships from October 2016 to January 2017. Each ship is priced at $120 million.
Reliance has two joint ventures in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale: One with Chevron, in which it has invested $1.7 billion; and another with Houston-based Carrizo Oil & Gas, in which it has invested $392 million. It has a third joint venture, in which it invested $1.5 billion, in Texas’ Eagle Ford Shale with Dallas-based Pioneer Natural Resources.