Spotted: Dragon Takes a Load Off in Grangemouth

On September 28, 2016, Ineos Insight, an LPG tanker operated by Swiss-based chemicals company Ineos, docked at Grangemouth in Scotland, bringing US shale gas cargo to the UK for the first time. 

The vessel carried 27,500 cubic meters of ethane gas originating from the Marcellus Shale in Western Pennsylvania. It was the first time that ethane has been exported from the USA to the UK.

The shipment is said to represent the culmination of a USD 2 billion investment in the project by Ineos.

“This is a game changer for British manufacturing. Its arrival guarantees the security of thousands of jobs in Scotland and could spark a shale gas revolution,” Jim Ratcliffe, chairman and founder of Ineos, said.

The 20,900 dwt Insight features a length of 180 meters and a width of 26.6 meters. Together with its sister vessels, the Insight is one of the world’s largest specifically built ethane multi-gas carriers.