Keltic eyes $1.3bn Nova Scotia petchem complex for '06

22 March 2002 20:26  [Source: ICIS news]

TORONTO (CNI)--Private Canadian company Keltic Petrochemicals plans a major petrochemicals complex in northern Nova Scotia, with start-up planned for second quarter 2006, officials confirmed Friday.

Keltic chief executive officer Kevin Dunn told CNI: "We have done our feasibility study and the project will go ahead after completion of our front-end engineering and design sometime next year."

Dunn said the complex will include a 513 000 tonne/year polyethylene plant, an ethylene plant of over 500 000 tonne/year, a straddle plant to extract ethane, butane and propane feedstock and a co-generation plant. It has been tentatively budgeted at Can$2bn ($1.3bn/Euro1.46bn), he added.

Dunn said feedstock would be extracted from gas supplies from Nova Scotia’s Sable Island offshore gas project which came onstream in 1999. Said Dunn: "There is sufficient petrochemicals feedstock there to supply our complex."

The plant will be sited at Goldboro in northern Guysborough County near an existing gas processing plant and pipeline.

Keltic's main shareholders are US petrochemicals engineering firm Fluor Daniel and US utilities company Emera, Dunn said.

An industry analyst here said the project would be in line with Nova Scotia’s strategy to gain more value from its offshore energy industry, instead of just exporting the oil and gas directly to US markets, "which is what is happening today."

Keltic is based in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

By: Stefan Baumgarten
+1 713 525 2653

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