Ineos is taking another major step toward controlling its own European feedstock supply. The Swiss-based petrochemicals giant said it has signed an agreement with infrastructure company Oiltanking Antwerp Gas Terminal (OTAGT) to build a 135,000 m3 fully refrigerated butane tank at OTAGT’s terminal in Port of Antwerp, Belgium. The expected cost of the facility, being described as the “largest ever built in Europe” and due to be in place by 2019, was not disclosed.

The Swiss-based group said the butane will be imported from the US “and other world markets” in very large gas carriers (VLGC) to Antwerp, from where it will be transported by barge to Cologne-Worringen, Germany, to feed its cracker with capacity for 1.1 million t/y of ethylene. At a later date, it said it may also ship butane to Lavéra, France, where it operates a 740,000 t/y ethlylene cracker in partnership with French oil and petrochemicals group Total.

Ineos did not specify whether it plans to use all of the product captively, but noted that having a base in the Antwerp port could also open the door for logistics arm Ineos Trading & Shipping to step into European butane trading. The logistic company’s CEO David Thompson, said the Belgian deal represents a “strategic investment in the future” of the group’s naphtha European crackers.

On the whole, Ineos said the increased flexibility and security of supply will allow it to “significantly improve” its competitiveness in Europe and position itself as a major player in global LPG markets. The olefins and polyolefins producer is additionally spending more than $1 billion to import US shale gas-derived ethane in specially-equipped built large vessels to its gas crackers at Grangemouth, Scotland, and Rafnes, Norway.

Since 2013, Ineos has operated a deep-sea terminal at Zwijndrecht, Belgium, near Antwerp, where it has capacity to land 1 million t of ethylene annually. The feedstock is piped through the northwest European ARG pipeline system to the group’s European production sites.