Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has joined hands with Japanese shipping firm Mitsui OSK Lines to operate two very large ethane carriers (VLECs) that will supply feedstock for ONGC Petro Additions (OPaL) at its Dahej facility in Gujarat.
The vessels, to be built at Korean shipyards at an estimated cost of USD 370 million, are expected to be ready in around two-and-a-half years, enabling ethane imports from mid-2028.
The ethane imports aim to secure feedstock for OPaL’s Dahej plant, which hosts Southeast Asia’s largest standalone dual-feed cracker. ONGC had previously set up a C2 (ethane) and C3 (propane) extraction unit at Dahej in 2008-09 at Rs 1,500 crore, followed by OPaL’s petrochemical complex in 2017.