Swiss petrochemical giant Ineos was delayed in loading the first of its ethane cargoes from a new US Gulf Coast export facility.
The 27,500-cbm JS Ineos Insight (built 2015) is currently situated near the entrance of the Houston Ship Channel, according to AIS data. It was scheduled to make a call at the Morgan's Point facility owned by energy logistics firm Enterprise Products for loading the inaugural cargo of ethane from that facility.
However, an Enterprise spokesman said the vessel "has not yet been called in while final preparations are made at the terminal. An exact date for the vessel to be called in has not been determined."
The Insight is one of four Evergas-owned ships chartered-in by Ineos for the seaborne trade in ethane gas, which is a lower cost substitute for crude oil-based feedstocks in plastics manufacturing. The ship is headed to Ineos' cracker in Rafnes, Norway.
The cargo out of the US Gulf comes about five months after the first Ineos-contracted cargo left the US East Coast facility at Marcus Hook in March. Since then, Ineos has imported roughly 600,000-cbm of ethane, according to an estimate from consultancy RBN Energy.
