As the U.S. chemical sector grows and expands, fueled by a surge in domestic gas production, the European chemical industry is stagnating, plagued by high production costs and a lack of investment in new plants and research and development.

To stay competitive, Europe must do business differently, including importing ethane from the United States, Michael Smith, vice president of energy analyst firm IHS Chemical told industry officials at the European Petrochemical Association annual meeting in Vienna this week.

Smith’s comments were the latest in a chorus about the future of Europe’s chemical industry, which has been facing greater pressure to pivot its business model after a deluge of cheap natural gas touched off a building spree in the U.S. petrochemical industry, creating new competition for lucrative markets in Asia and the Middle East.

Smith said it was unlikely that Europe will embrace the shale boom that has transformed the energy landscape in the United States, therefore chemical companies should view importing U.S. ethane as an attractive alternative to transform their feedstock landscape.

That’s a big shift for European ethylene producers, particularly those in Western Europe. They primarily run on naphtha, which is typically derived from crude oil and is much more expensive. Ethylene is a building block for plastics.

Some European companies have already agreed to retrofit to run on gas from the U.S., creating what IHS dubbed a “virtual ethane pipeline” between North America and Europe.

Mutlinational chemical company Ineos, with headquarters in Switzerland, has signed contracts to supply its crackers in the United Kingdom and Norway with U.S. ethane, according to IHS. Those two crackers already ran on gas from the North Sea but Ineos is now building terminals to import tankers of cheaper gas pumped from the Marcellus Shale and shipped from the United States, Smith said.

And, Italy-based petrochemical producer Versalis this week at the association meeting said it would convert a cracker in northern France to consume U.S. ethane, Smith said.

“We’ve identified seven other possible locations in Europe where they could import ethane and crack it but with higher conversion costs,” Smith said.

U.S. ethane production continues to be robust. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said this week that a growing supply is expected to continue to lower ethane prices compared to propane, continuing a trend that started in 2013, when U.S. ethylene crackers began substituting ethane for propane as the price spread between the two widened.

“There’s so much gas being extracted that even in 20 years time there will still be gas to be exported,” Smith said. “There’s no limitation on the supply side.”