Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) announced, on December 11, that the company has safely loaded, for the first time, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Propylene onto the same vessel, which was docked in Ruwais, in United Arab Emirates (UAE).
By successfully loading around 12,600 metric tons of Propylene and 33,000 metric tons of LPG onto a single vessel, freight rates were significantly reduced.
Normally, LPG and Propylene, which is produced by ADNOC, are transported separately.
Shipping costs, or freight rates as they are more commonly referred to, constitute a significant amount when delivering a product to customers and end-users. By co-loading product that is bound for a particular customer, or location, we are able to deliver substantial cost-savings.
Abdulla Salem Al Dhaheri, Director of Marketing, Sales and Trading at ADNOC, stated in the company’s announcement.
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ADNOC conducted a number of workshops with its customers, product specialists in order to achieve the co-loading of LPG and Propylene, which must be stored at different temperatures.
Al Dhaheri added that this new practice could change the market approach to loading Propylene onto larger ships and reduce Propylene freight rates dramatically.
This innovation expands further ADNOC’s strategy which is to maximise value from its downstream refining, petrochemical and gas processing operations ADNOC Gas Processing produces up to 10.5 million metric tons of LPG annually, while ADNOC Refining produces up to 1.7 million metric tons per year of Propylene.
