SEABORNE ETHANE

Ethane is produced from natural gas (on an industrial scale) and is actually treated as the by-product of oil refining process. The global production of this gas was at about 55 million tonnes level in 2013, the majority being in the United States and Middle East. It is primarily used in the chemical industry, namely in the production of another gas, ethylene. In turn, ethylene is further used in the production of PVC, polyethylene, styrene and ethylene glycol.

Throughout the history, ethane gas has been carried in the small ethane/ethylene carriers that were specifically designed for transportation of ethylene, taking into account its boiling point of -104C, ethane and other LPG cargo. The present report consists of two parts. In part A the authors look at the most important factors influencing the expected future demand for the transportation of the ethane cargoes from the United States.

It is assumed that such increasing demand will require larger ships (with capacity more than 400000 cub.m.) and it means that these ships will most probably be too large for the containment systems that have been in use up to today. This is what the second part of this report is dealing with - what the new containment systems may look like.