Following all regulatory approvals, Borealis has completed the acquisition of Nova Chemicals’ 50% share in Novealis Holdings. The plans were announced at the beginning of this year.

The two companies created the holding in 2018 and subsequently formed a 50:50 joint venture with Total Petrochemicals and Refining USA, subsidiary of the French energy and petrochemicals giant, to create a new company, Bayport Polymers (also known as Baystar) based in Houston.

Borealis CEO Alfred Stern said the buyout of the Canadian partner supports the Vienna-based group’s global growth ambitions.

“Acquiring Nova’s share in Novealis will allow us to further increase our footprint in North America, enabling us to better serve our customers in this region with our value-added Borstar technology and its related products,” Stern said.

Baystar’s assets encompass the 1 million t/y cracker Total cracker at Port Arthur, Texas, as well as the French group’s polyethylene plant at Bayport, Texas, expected to start up later this year.  A 625,000 t/y PE plant is under construction at Bayport and is due to go on stream in 2021, using the Borstar technology.