Canada’s Keltic Petrochemicals project will not go ahead – CEO

TORONTO (ICIS news)–The proposed multi-billion dollar Keltic Petrochemicals project in Canada’s eastern Nova Scotia province will not go ahead, chief executive Kevin Dunn said on Friday.

“We are shutting the company down, the project will not be built,” Dunn told ICIS news.

Dunn was confirming regional media reports. However, he firmly declined to give any reasons or provide additional comment.

Keltic, which has been on the drawing board for about 10 years, was originally conceived as an integrated liquefied natural gas (LNG)-petrochemicals complex with chemical capacities of around 1.5m tonnes/year. It would have included downstream polyethylene and polypropylene plants. 

However, while project planners obtained environmental and other regulatory permits, they made only slow progress over the years.

Commentators doubted the project’s feedstock economics, and with the fall-out from the economic crisis, Keltic was hardly viable now, they said. Also, North American natural gas supplies have increased and prices have moderated in recent years, clouding prospects for new LNG projects, they said.

Last year, Irving Oil cancelled a proposed 300,000 bbl/day refinery project in neighbouring New Brunswick province because of the slow economy. However, Irving did complete and start up a large joint venture LNG complex in that province.

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