NOVA Chemicals Corporation today announced a series of modernization upgrades to its Corunna, Ontario ethylene flexi-cracker that will reduce production costs and improve reliability.
The Corunna flexi-cracker supplies ethylene to NOVA Chemicals’ Sarnia, Ontario area polyethylene and styrene manufacturing sites and to other area plastics and petrochemical production facilities. The approximately $210 million U.S. ($260 million Cdn.) 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, and are expected to result in enhanced energy efficiency, reduced emissions, strengthened operating reliability, and expanded ethylene and propylene capacity.
“We are accelerating plans to upgrade our Corunna plant in order 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. “This modernization will help to ensure reliable, high production rates as we head into peak industry conditions.”
As part of the project, NOVA Chemicals plans to increase annual ethylene production capacity at the Corunna site by approximately 225 to 400 million pounds, depending on feedstocks, plus produce more propylene and coproducts. Increased supply to NOVA Chemicals’ three Sarnia area ethylene consuming plants will reduce requirements to ship ethylene from the company’s Joffre, Alberta facility – improving reliability, lowering costs, and resulting in greater flexibility at the Joffre site.
NOVA Chemicals produces commodity plastics and chemicals that are essential to everyday life. Our employees develop and manufacture materials for customers worldwide that produce consumer, industrial and packaging products. We work with a commitment to Responsible Care® to ensure effective health, safety, security and environmental stewardship. Company shares are traded on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges as NCX.
Visit NOVA Chemicals on the Internet at www.novachemicals.com.
Media inquiries, please contact:
Greg Wilkinson – Vice President, Public Affairs
Tel: 412.490.4166
Investor Relations inquiries, please contact:
Chris Bezaire – Vice President, Investor Relations
Tel: 412.490.5070
Forward-Looking Information
The information in this news release contains forward-looking statements with respect to NOVA Chemicals, its subsidiaries and affiliated companies. By their nature, these forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include: uncertainties regarding regulatory approvals; uncertainties regarding total costs; uncertainties regarding expected results and outcomes of the modernization upgrades; uncertainties regarding feedstock selection; uncertainties regarding the cyclical nature of the chemicals business; and other risks detailed from time to time in the publicly filed disclosure documents and securities commissions reports of NOVA Chemicals and its subsidiaries or affiliated companies. There can be no assurances that the modernization upgrades will be completed within an anticipated timeframe or budget.
Responsible Care® is a registered trademark of the Canadian Chemical Producers’ Association (CCPA) in Canada and is a registered service mark of the American Chemistry Council (ACC) in the United States.
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