Ethane, Once a Waste Product/Expense, Now a Profit Maker

When drillers for natural gas sink a hole and methane (CH4) begins to come out of the ground, a number of other hydrocarbons come out of the ground along with it--at least in "wet gas" areas. Those other hydrocarbons include ethane (C2H6). Ethane production in some M-U wells goes as high as 6% or more of the hydrocarbons coming out. For years ethane has been a waste product, something drillers pay to dispose of--typically by "rejecting" it and slipping it into the methane stream. Increasingly ethane, which is now trading at its highest price in two-and-a-half years, has become a profit center. Why? Because it's used to make plastics.

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