Ineos Opens New Ethane Terminal in Belgium

Ineos has opened its new deep-sea ethylene terminal at Zwijndrecht, Belgium, near Antwerp. Here, as much as 1 million t/y of ethylene can be unloaded and fed into the company's derivatives facilities in the area, as well as into the northwest European ARG pipeline system. The Swiss-based company said the new terminal will be enabled to better balance its requirements across many of its main European facilities.

Earlier this year, Ineos signed a long-term shipping agreement with Norway's Evergas covering imports of shale gas-derived US ethane to Europe, in particular to its cracker at Rafnes. It is also negotiating with the UK government about building a terminal to feed shale gas-derived ethylene to its production site at Grangemouth, Scotland.

The lack of competitively priced feedstock for the Grangemouth cracker was one of the side arguments Ineos employed in its recent dispute with the labor union Unite that nearly led to the site's closure.