December 8, 2017 – Paul Morden, The Observer – It’s the news Sarnia-Lambton was waiting for.
Nova Chemicals said Thursday it will spend $2 billion building a new polyethylene plant in St. Clair Township, next to Sarnia, and expand production at it Corunna plant where it makes ethylene.
Nova Chemicals which already produces polyethylene in St. Clair Township at its Moore and St. Clair River site, first proposed building a new Sarnia-Lambton plant in 2011.
Work is already underway preparing the plant site off Rokeby Line, just south of the Corunna plant, and construction is expected to take four years.
During that time, the company estimates 800 to 1,400 construction workers will be at the site at any given time, and the new plant will have 150 permanent workers when it is expected to go into production in late 2021.
Brad Duguid, Ontario’s minister of economic development and growth, attended Thursday’s announcement and said the province is providing a $100-million grant to Nova for the project.
The new plant will required highway improvements, including lengthening the existing southbound left turn lanes at Petrolia Line and Rokeby Line, and widening the intersection radius at the southeast corner of Highway 40 and Rokeby Line.
Ontario’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change has already issued air, noise, storm water and waste water environmental compliance approvals for the proposed new plant, and St. Clair Township council has given approval-in-principle for a site plan.
Nova has said the new polyethylene plant project would be tied to an expansion of its Corunna site which produces ethylene, a chemical used in the production of polyethylene.
Previously, Nova announced major investments in the U.S. Gulf Coast, including purchasing an 88.46 per cent share in an olefins plant in Louisiana that produces approximately 1.95 billion pounds of ethylene annually, and a joint venture with Total and Borealis to build an ethylene cracker and polyethylene plant in Texas.
In late 2016, Nova announced the startup of a new polyethylene facility at Joffre, Alberta.
NOVA Chemicals, headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, is wholly-owned ultimately by Mubadala Investment Company of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
pmorden@postmedia.com
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