Increased output

Nova Chemicals is to invest $210 million modernising its Ontario, Canada-based ethylene flexi-cracker facility, increasing its production and reducing pollution.

The flexi-cracker supplies ethylene to Nova Chemicals' Sarnia, Ontario polyethylene and styrene manufacturing sites as well as to other plastics and petrochemical production facilities in the area.

The investment includes furnace and infrastructure improvements as well as the replacement of several large compressors. The upgrades are scheduled for 2005, with completion in the second quarter of 2006.

"We are accelerating plans to upgrade our Corunna, Ontario plant to prepare for what we believe will be a prolonged period of strong demand for ethylene and polyethylene," said Jeffrey M. Lipton, President and Chief Executive Officer of Nova Chemicals.

Nova Chemicals plans to increase annual ethylene production capacity at the Corunna site by approximately 225 to 400 million pounds, depending on feedstocks, and produce more propylene and coproducts. Increased supply to the company's' three Sarnia area plants that use the ethylene will reduce the need to ship ethylene from the company's Joffre, Alberta facility.

The Joffre, Alberta, site produces 75% of Nova's ethylene from ethane, which is extracted from natural gas, while the balance of its ethylene is manufactured in Corunna, Ontario, in the flexi-cracker facility which is primarily fed with crude oil and crude oil derivatives, such as naphtha.