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anada-based Nova Chemicals, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) of UAE, will build two new PE plants at its sites in Alberta and Ontario, where Nova produces the ethylene feedstock. The company is also looking at debottlenecking its LDPE line in Ontario.

The HDPE/LLDPE facility will use the company's Advanced Sclairtech technology while the LDDPE unit will use its Novapol technology.

In support of the PE expansions, the company says ethylene supply growth will be derived from the increased utilisation of the existing Alberta cracker capacity, along with expansion of the Corunna cracker in Ontario.

This planned increase in ethylene production will be supported by emerging, cost- competitive feedstock supply from a diverse portfolio of new feedstock sources, linked to both shale oil and shale gas development, oil sand upgrading off-gases and expansion in supply from conventional ethane extraction capacity.

Meanwhile, the engineering and feasibility studies for the debottlenecking are expected to be completed by mid-2012 and start-up of the project and polymer expansions is targeted between late 2014 and 2017.