Reliance readies infrastructure to import US shale gas

摘要

Reliance Industries (Mumbai) is pressing ahead with preparations to import US shale gas for three of its steam crackers in India. The company is building a 480-kilometer ethane pipeline from Dahej to Nagothane, the sites of its two gas crackers, each designed to produce 400,000 m.t./year of ethylene. The line will also pass through Hazira, where Reliance operates a naphtha cracker with capacity for 900,000 m.t./year of ethylene. The two gas crackers will be the main consumers of US ethane, while the Hazira cracker will use it as a backup when economics allow. The 1.5-million m.t./year ethylene plant nearing completion at Reliances Jamnagar site will not be part of this system. The plant, scheduled onstream next year, will be fed on refinery offgas and will be the biggest off-gas cracker in the world.