What are Petrochemicals?
Petrochemicals are products manufactured from crude oil and natural gas.
Alberta is Canada's leading producer of petrochemicals. Located primarily in Joffre and Fort Saskatchewan, the industry is one of the largest in the province. It features four ethane-cracking plants, including two of the world's largest, with combined annual capacity to produce 8.6 billion pounds of ethylene.
Alberta's petrochemical industry uses natural gas liquids, mainly ethane, for feedstock to produce ethylene. Ethylene is used to manufacture polyethylene for flexible packaging material, ethylene glycol and styrene. In turn, styrene is used for many consumer products such as expanded polystyrene cups and ethylene glycol is used for textiles and for antifreeze. The industry produces numerous other products including fertilizer.
The viability of the Alberta petrochemical industry is built on access to a long-term secure supply of natural gas feedstock, availability of natural gas at competitive pricing - and an ability to access global markets with competitively-priced derivatives.
As a result of approximately $9 billion in capital investment since the 1970s, Alberta's petrochemical industry has substantially increased its production capacity for ethylene, polyethylene, ethylene glycol and linear olefins. In recent years, for example, ethylene capacity has nearly doubled as a result of expansions at Joffre and at Fort Saskatchewan.
