A cargo of US-produced ethane is heading to China in a world first trade route for the product.
Data intelligence company Kpler reported that Evergas’ 27,566-cbm multigas carrier JS Ineos Innovation (built 2016) is heading trans-Pacific after departing the Morgans Point facility in the US on 27 June and transiting the Panama Canal.
The Chinese-built vessel, which is capable of carrying LNG, ethylene and LPG, is expected to arrive at Taixing in China towards the end of this month, Kpler said.
The shipment is set to mark an important new destination for US ethane, which has until now been shipped either on VLECs to India and until recently, on smaller vessels to northern Europe.
US ethane is in plentiful supply as a bi-product of shale gas production and exports are growing as new terminal facilities come onstream.
In May JS Ineos Innovation was involved in another ethane first.
A VLEC brought the first large parcel of US ethane cargo into Europe when Evergas’ 83,757-cbm newbuilding JS Ineos Marlin shipped a cargo transatlantic, before discharging it into JS Ineos Innovation (built 2016) at Scapa Flow in the UK via ship-to-ship operations at the end of May.
This first STS shipment was delivered to Rafnes in Norway on 2 June before the smaller ship returned to pick up additional cargoes from the VLEC.
