Shares of GAIL India rose in the afternoon of March 17 after the company signed a memorandum of understanding with Shell Energy India for hydrocarbon imports.

On Friday, India’s largest natural gas utility said it had signed an agreement with Shell Energy India Pvt Ltd to explore ethane procurement and other opportunities along the energy value chain. GAIL plans to import ethane from the United States to replace natural gas and naphtha as feedstock for petrochemical plants.

GAIL launched a tender last month to charter a large ethane carrier (VLEC) for 20 years from mid-2026 to import ethane from the US. The vessel will have a capacity of 80,000 to 99,000 cubic meters. It will aim to receive ethane from the ports of Marcus Hook, Dutch Harbor, Morgan Point or Beaumont in the US, and at Dahej or Hazira Gujarat in Maharashtra or Dabhol to deliver ethane.

“For GAIL, this is a step towards improving business operations,” the statement said on the signing of the MoU with Shell Energy India.

“To diversify feedstock for its petrochemical plants, GAIL is looking to import ethane by water from ethane surplus countries with mature export terminal infrastructure to India and transport it further to demand centres through GAIL’s pipeline system.”

At 2:00 pm, Bharat Electronics quoted Rs 94.03, up Rs 2.38 or 2.6% on the BSE. It touched an intraday high of Rs 94.67 and an intraday low of Rs 93.14.

GAIL is India’s largest natural gas company. It owns and operates a network of approximately 14,830 kilometres of natural gas pipelines across the country. It has about 68% market share in natural gas transmission and sells 53% of all natural gas sales in the country.