According to Sarnia Observer article published on December 23, 2022, Nova Chemicals officials say the company has finished construction of its new polyethylene manufacturing site on Rokeby Line in St. Clair Township and the expansion of its Corunna facility next door.
Nova began work on the new plant and the expansion in 2017, and construction continued through the pandemic.
Together, the two projects cost more than $2 billion and provided work for more than 7,000 construction workers, the company said Friday in a statement.
“We’re pleased to have completed the construction phase of the projects, and our team is now fully focused on safely completing post-construction activities prior to starting the commissioning phase of this flagship asset,” said Rob Thompson, Nova Chemicals’ vice-president of manufacturing east.
“This has been a tremendous effort across the organization,” he said. “During unprecedented conditions, everyone involved has worked diligently to bring our vision to reality and we look forward to celebrating the startup of the Rokeby Site with our stakeholders in 2023.”
The new plant on Rokeby Line has the capacity to produce approximately one-billion pounds of polyethylene plastic a year. It uses ethylene Nova produces at the Corunna site from natural gas liquids, and the recent project expanded that site’s capacity by more than 50 per cent.
Nova Chemicals is the largest private employer in the Sarnia area with more than 1,000 employees in the region, according to its website.
Along with the Rokeby and Corunna manufacturing locations, it has a local corporate office and already produces polyethylene at its nearby Moore and St. Clair River sites.
The new plant and expansion are expected to add 150 full-time jobs.
“Post-construction commissioning activities at the Rokeby Site are fully underway with several on-site unit operations in the startup phase,” company officials said.
Initially, the company said the new plant and the expansion would begin operating in late 2021, but then the pandemic arrived and work at the site was slowed.
Nova Chemicals, which has its headquarters in Calgary, is owned by the Mubadala Investment Company of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.
