Private-sector integrated Ineos has opened Europe's largest above-ground LPG storage tank at the Oiltanking Antwerp Gas Terminal (AGT) in Belgium.
The 135,000m³ (around 80,000t) fully-refrigerated butane tank doubles the terminal's storage capacity. The cost of the project was not disclosed.
The facility is part of Ineos' $5bn project to expand its operations in northwest Europe.
Ineos will be able to import US butane on very large gas carriers (VLGCs) into the Antwerp storage and deliver product via barges along the Rhine river to its Cologne petrochemical plant for its flexible naphtha crackers. The firm took delivery in April of three supersized river barges to connect the Antwerp facility to its Cologne cracker. The barges will make the four-day voyage on a continuous cycle.
Adding a ready supply of butane gives Ineos greater flexibility to use different feedstocks at Cologne and its three other European cracking locations.
Ineos is also constructing a €3bn ($3.4bn) ethane cracker and PDH complex, again in Antwerp.