The story
In 1954, the Alberta legislature under Ernest Manning passed the Alberta Gas Trunk Line Company Act, creating the Alberta Gas Trunk Line Company (AGTL) Crown Corporation, with a monopoly on natural gas transportation (pipelines) within the province. Construction began in 1956 and gas began flowing in 1957. In the 1970s, AGTL expanded into the chemicals industry. The company was privatized in 1961 and was renamed NOVA, An Alberta Corporation in 1980, and again, to Nova Corporation of Alberta in 1986. By 1989 was considered a "petrochemical and pipeline giant."
NOVA Corporation of Alberta was renamed Nova Corporation in 1994. In 1998, NOVA Corporation split in two, with its pipeline business (with $11 billion in annual sales) merging with TransCanada Pipelines and its chemicals business ($2.4 billion sales) becoming a publicly traded company, NOVA Chemicals. Shortly after the split, then-CEO Jeffrey Lipton moved NOVA Chemicals' head office from Calgary to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. While this move was made in order to be closer to US customers, the benefits of the move never materialized. It was also seen as a snub to the province of Alberta, as Premier Ed Stelmach refused to grant NOVA Chemicals a bailout in 2009 due to the financial meltdown and recession, as well as the company's heavy debt load.
On July 6, 2009, the International Petroleum Investment Company (since 2016 IPIC merged with Mubadala), which is wholly owned by the government of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, completed the 100% purchase of NOVA Chemicals, and transferred its place of incorporation to the Province of New Brunswick.
In the United States, NOVA Chemicals has focused recent expansion in the Gulf Coast area. This includes acquiring an olefins plant that produces roughly 1.95 billion pounds of ethylene annually in Geismar, Louisiana, which was purchased from Williams Partners. In December 2022, the company completed construction of a new polyethylene plant in St. Clair Township.
In June 2024, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) provided a Letter of Non Objection confirming the capability of NOVA Chemicals's mechanical recycling process in Connersville.
Acquisitions
In the 1980s, NOVA had controlling ownership of Calgary-based Husky Oil. NOVA sold the last of its stake in Husky in 1991.
In 1988, NOVA acquired, Polysar Energy & Chemical Corporation (formerly Aquitaine Company of Canada Ltd.) from the Canadian Development Corporation.
From Wikipedia’s article on Nova Chemicals, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5