U.S. ethane exports have risen steadily over the past five years, from next to nothing in early 2014 to an average of 255 Mb/d in 2018 and 269 Mb/d in the first three months of this year. But unlike its heavier NGL siblings propane and butane, which are in demand globally as fuels and feedstocks, ethane’s only established use is in steam crackers specifically equipped to process it, so there are only a few countries where exported ethane is likely to end up. Also, the waterborne transport of ethane is generally limited to specially designed ethane carriers, and there aren’t many of those around because of ethane’s restricted market. All this makes for an export commodity that stands apart. Today, we review the evolution of U.S. ethane exports and the challenges to export growth posed by the U.S./China trade war.
Visualize the infrastructure behind U.S. NGL movement.
The U.S. NGLs Map provides a comprehensive view of the transport, processing, and export networks moving NGLs across the U.S.
As we said a few months ago in Send It to Me, ethane — the lightest of the NGL “purity products” — can either be “rejected” into the natural gas stream at the gas processing plant and sold (at the price of gas) for its Btu value or extracted from mixed NGLs (through fractionation) like its purity-product brethren and sold to steam crackers (to produce ethylene and other petrochemical byproducts). But, with the rapid run-up in U.S. NGL production in the 2010s — and, with it, the increasing availability of ethane — a number of niche foreign markets for U.S.-sourced ethane have sprung up, providing NGL producers with new outlets for their product for boosting their bottom lines. Figure 1 shows U.S. ethane export volumes over the past five-plus years; the green layer shows exports via pipeline to Canada, and the blue layer shows exports by ship.
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About the song
"One of a Kind" was written by Billy Sherrill and Stephen Allen Davis, and was the first cut from the album of the same name released by Tammy Wynette. Recorded at CBS Studios in Nashville, and produced by Billy Sherrill, the LP dropped in November 1977. The "One of a Kind" single went to #6 on the Billboard Country Singles chart, while the album went to #32 on the Country Albums chart. One of a Kind was Wynette's 18th solo studio album.
Tammy Wynette was an American country music singer-songwriter who has been called the "First Lady of Country Music." Her #1 hit song, "Stand by Your Man," is one of the best-selling singles by a woman in the history of country music. In 2011, the song was chosen by the U.S. Library of Congress as one of 25 recordings to be preserved for their cultural significance. Wynette made 30 solo studio albums and released 64 singles, with 20 of them going to #1 in the U.S. during her career. While married to country music star George Jones from 1969 to 1975, the pair released nine studio albums and 14 singles together. Tammy Wynette won four Grammy Awards, one American Music Award, two Academy of Country Music Awards, nine BMI Awards, four Billboard Magazine Awards and two Country Music Awards. She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1996 and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2009. Wynette passed away in Nashville in 1998 at the age of 55.
Comments
If China were to place a tariff on American ethane, where else could Chinese importers of ethane obtain it?
In reply to Other sources of ethane for China? by Ysbrand van der Werf
There is nowhere else to get it at this time