Canada's Nova Chemicals Corporation held a ceremony on Jan. 16 at its Corunna, Ontario, cracker to celebrate the cracking of its first barrels of ethane sourced from the Marcellus Shale Basin in the U.S. The company said it had been using the new feedstock since late December 2013 in the cracker revamped to use 100% natural gas liquid feedstock.

CEO Randy Woelfel said the introduction of Marcellus Shale ethane into the feedstock diet at the Corunna cracker marks a tremendous milestone in the company's drive to utilize more cost-competitive feedstock, and is a "critical component" of its NOVA 2020 growth strategy of capitalizing on new feedstock sources. The Corunna cracker has a capacity of more than 800,000 t/y of ethylene and is due to be expanded.