INEOS starts building Europe's largest ethane tank to import US feedstocks

INEOS Grangemouth has seen the massive roof that covers Europe’s biggest ethane storage tank rise into place using just four low pressure fans, following six months of building work, the company recently announced.

The huge tank is 56 meters in diameter and 44 meters high, giving it a displacement volume of 108,372 cubic meters -- large enough for 560 double-decker buses to fit inside.

The investment in the Grangemouth tank and infrastructure is part of the company’s £450 million rescue package to equip the site to import ethane gas from the US. The project will transform Grangemouth overnight, according to INEOS officials, and will allow its manufacturing assets to once more compete globally, providing raw materials for thousands of manufacturing businesses across the UK and Europe.

“This is a landmark day for Grangemouth," said John McNally, CEO of INEOS O&P in the UK. "We know that US ethane has transformed US manufacturing and now Scottish industry will benefit as well. This will secure a cost-effective supply of ethane for the next 15 years, and give a sustainable base for Grangemouth for that time.”

The building of Europe’s largest ethane storage tank is just part of INEOS’ $1-billion global project to get US shale gas to Europe.

INEOS has contracts to access a 100-mile pipeline from the Marcellus Shale in western Pennsylvania to the Marcus Hook gas terminal close to Philadelphia. From there, INEOS has commissioned eight huge Dragon-class ships to carry the liquefied shale gas ethane from the US to Europe.

INEOS has even built two brand new import terminals to receive the gas, one at Grangemouth and the other at Rafnes in Norway. This huge ethane storage tank and supporting infrastructure is one part of this project.

“Bringing US ethane to Europe is a huge undertaking involving INEOS experts from across the globe," said McNally. "To raise the roof of this huge tank means that yet another milestone for the project has been reached. 

"It is still early days on this project, as we now set to work on the internal structure of the tank and the surrounding infrastructure," he added. "We are on schedule for the first US ethane to arrive in Grangemouth during the second half of  2016.”