GAIL Limited, India’s primary natural gas supplier, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on March 7, 2024, with the Indian Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Shell Energy India (SEI) to explore opportunities for the import of U.S. ethane and the development of associated infrastructure. GAIL said ethane has emerged as a preferred petrochemical feedstock in India and the development of its import facilities have gained considerable traction. "Definite plans are being formulated to import ethane for domestic petrochemical plant requirements." said Rajeev Kumar Singhal, Director (Business Development), GAIL. Echoing the sentiment, ONGC Group General Manager & Head Petrochemicals Shri Ashok Kumar, said that going forward, ethane is the fuel of the future as feedstock to the Indian petrochemical industry. India is adding petchem capacities and making available viable and affordable ethane is the key for the plans ahead.
GAIL had previously entered into a bilateral MoU with SEI in May 2023 to conduct a feasibility study for ethane imports into Shell’s existing LNG import terminal at Hazira, India. GAIL potentially will join Ineos (Europe), Braskem-Idesa (Mexico) and Wanhua Chemical (China) which all have projects under construction to import U.S. ethane (see below). In addition to the announced projects, we believe there are several others under development, primarily in China, which could further grow demand for U.S. ethane.
