News
Transforming Grangemouth
The £450m investment into the ethane project represents part of a rescue package for Grangemouth. Part of a $1 billion dollar global project, spanning China, the US and Europe – all to bring ethane to Grangemouth and Norway – it will transform the Grangemouth petrochemicals business and provide a secure supply of essential ethane for the next 15 years.
In a remarkable feat of engineering, the 330 tonne roof was floated up almost 150 feet on nothing more than a cushion of air. The tank, which is 56 metres in diameter and 44 metres high, is designed to hold over 60,000 cubic metres of ethane brought from the US to replace declining North Sea supply.
“This is an important day for Grangemouth. It takes us one step nearer our goal of importing US ethane to Scotland and putting Grangemouth back into the premier league of petrochemical plants,” said INEOS O&P UK’s chief executive John McNally.
The project will transform Grangemouth overnight and will allow its manufacturing assets to once more compete globally, providing raw materials for thousands of manufacturing businesses across the UK and Europe.
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. The company, which has contracts to access a 100-mile pipeline from the Marcellus Shale in western Pennsylvania to the Marcus Hook gas terminal close to Philadelphia, has commissioned eight huge Dragon class ships to carry the liquefied shale gas ethane from the US to Europe.
www.ineos.com