The Court of the Queen's Bench in Alberta, Canada, has signed a judgment ordering Nova Chemicals to pay Can$1.43 billion to Dow in a case related to the companies' jointly owned cracker in Joffre, known as E3. The payment must be made on Oct. 11 2019.

The case goes back to June last year, when the court found that Nova Chemicals had failed to operate the ethylene plant at full capacity for more than 10 years and furthermore, that Nova had violated several agreements relating to Dow’s share of the output. These actions resulted in reduced productivity and sales for Dow, the court said.

Nova said it had faced an ethane shortage that meant it had to run the cracker below capacity. The Canadian company filed a counterclaim but this was dismissed.

The judgement, which is subject to appeal, relates to damages that Dow incurred through 2012. Dow anticipates receiving an additional judgement for damages owed by Nova for the period post-2012. The company added that the plant is now running at a higher utilization rate, giving it more ethylene.

Nova has not yet responded to this latest ruling.