NOVA Chemicals. (BlackburnNews.com File photo by Briana Carnegie)NOVA Chemicals. (BlackburnNews.com File photo by Briana Carnegie)
Sarnia

Scheduled Maintenance Now Underway At NOVA Plants

NOVA Chemicals is employing hundreds of local tradespeople with maintenance shutdowns underway now at all three of its St. Clair Township plants.

Company spokesperson Meaghan Kreeft says their Corunna site will be shut down for nearly three months.

"The outage is estimated to last until the end of October," says Kreeft. "Beyond scheduled maintenance, inspections, cleaning and repairs, we're also completing tie-ins for growth and capital projects. More than 2,000 people are directly involved in turnaround activities in our region, including 1,500 additional tradespeople."

Kreeft says the majority of workers including electricians, pipefitters, boilermakers, labourers, insulators, millrights, ironworkers and scaffolders, are local and the company is using local suppliers, trades, contractors and subcontractors wherever possible.

She says sustaining capital and tie-ins for the Corunna All Ethane Conversion Project and Second Feed System are part of an investment of about $400-million.

In the meantime, the Calgary-based company continues to explore building a new worldscale polyethylene plant at the Corunna site with an investment decision still expected this year.

Kreeft says elevated flaring and some increased noise are expected during the first couple of days of the Corunna turnaround. There will also be increased traffic in the area, especially between 6am and 8am and 5pm and 7pm for the duration of the outage.

Scheduled maintenance is taking place at NOVA's St. Clair and Moore sites as well.

-With files from Josh Boyce

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