Petrochemical Industries - The City of Red Deer

More than half of Canada's petrochemical capacity is located in Alberta. The development of this industry in Alberta has been one of the major diversification success stories of the last few decades. It is based largely upon the availability of large quantities of competitively-priced feedstocks, particularly natural gas, ethane, and to a lesser extent, propane and butane. One of the largest petrochemical clusters in North America can be found in Central Alberta, just 15 km east of Red Deer. The NOVA Chemicals Joffre site produces ethylene and polyethylene. Their three ethylene plants take the ethane which has been stripped out of natural gas and put it through "cracking" furnaces in order to produce ethylene. Ethylene is used as a building block to make plastics, antifreeze, film, fibres, and other products. Much of the ethylene produced at the facility is sold to other chemical firms but over 30% is used right at the Joffre site in the production of polyethylene. A number of major employers (including DOW, BP Petroleum, Agrium, and Praxair) have located facilities adjacent to the NOVA site to capitalize on peripheral manufacturing opportunities. Please click on the report below to get more information on the Red Deer/Joffre Petrochemical cluster. Red Deer/Joffre Petrochemical Cluster Report 2001
	Related Links: NOVA Chemicals DOW Chemicals BP Petroleum Agrium Praxair