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The United States, Canada and the Middle East have long
been the dominant producers and consumers of ethane. Western Europe and Asia
consume much smaller amounts and Japan has essentially no market for ethane.
In the Middle East, consumption has grown with additions to ethylene capacity.
Feedstock prices, ethane availability, and demand for ethylene and downstream
petrochemical products will help determine future ethane producers as well
as production levels.
Ethane is consumed as a feedstock in the production of ethylene or as an industrial
fuel. Nearly all ethane produced is consumed in the manufacture of ethylene
and competes with other steam cracker feedstocks such as propane, butane, naphtha
and gas oil. Most ethane occurs indigenously with other natural gas liquids
(NGLs), such as propane and butane, in natural gas, either associated with
crude petroleum (associated gas) or in gas reservoirs not associated with petroleum
(nonassociated gas). Smaller volumes of ethane are also recovered from refinery
gases generated by catalytic cracking of petroleum fractions. The following
pie chart shows world consumption of ethane for ethylene:
The Middle East will have the largest average annual ethane consumption growth
rate during the forecast period of 2006–2011 as a result of the many
cracker projects due to come on stream in the near future.
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