Ethane
Ethane, the lightest of the natural gas liquids makes up almost 25% of total NGL demand or about 250,000 MB / year. Ethane is almost exclusively used as a feedstock to chemical plants for the production of Ethylene and Propylene, the building blocks of the plastics industry. It can also be used for fueling or at times even left in the Natural Gas (methane) stream depending on current economics.
The vast majority of Ethane trades along the Gulf Coast of the United States, as this is the largest producing region and home to most of the demand from the gulf coast chemical complexes. The major hub for ethane trading is Mt. Belvieu, TX. Ethane is transported via pipelines as it is very volatile and not well suited for truck or container transport.
There is no publicly traded Ethane futures contract (ie. Nymex contract). All of the Ethane is traded over the counter (OTC) between parties with bi-lateral credit agreements.