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Located in Sarnia-Lambton's Chemical Valley, about 180 miles (288 kilometers) southwest of Toronto, NOVA Chemicals' Corunna site is a refinery and petrochemical complex that supplies between 30% and 40% of Canada's total requirements for primary petrochemicals. The refinery is capable of producing in excess of 6.5 billion pounds of basic petrochemicals and 3 billion pounds of refinery and energy products annually.

The Corunna facility started up in late 1977 and was purchased by NOVA Chemcals in 1988. It was the first fully integrated refinery and petrochemical complex in North America. Its original processing capability was entirely crude-oil based liquid. Today, it has the flexibility to process a much broader range of feedstocks - producing a full range of primary petrochemicals and co-products. Known as a "flexi-cracker," Corunna's capability to "switch" from using heavy-based feedstocks, to using a balance of both heavy-and light-based feedstocks is definitely a competitive advantage. Most North American crackers do not have this flexibility.

The Corunna site processes crude oil, condensate and natural gas liquids (NGLs) that are delivered to the site by pipeline from western Canada. These products are the feedstocks used to manufacture ethylene, propylene, butadiene, iso-butylene, n-butylene, benzene, toluene and xylene.

During petrochemical production, other co-products are also manufactured, including synthetic natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, gasoline components, diesel fuel and home heating oil. Another co-product, heavy residual fuel oil, is sold as or for industrial fuel. Specialty chemicals, such as products for the rubber and hydrocarbon industries, as well as resins oils used in printing inks and adhesives, are also produced and sold in the North American market.

Ethylene, propylene, benzene and toluene are chemical building blocks for plastic resins. These resins are used in a variety of common products, such as small appliances, small automotive parts, plastic bottles, cosmetics, carpet and clothing fibers, food additives, insulation, solvents and gasoline additives. Butadiene, butylenes and iso-butylene are used in tires, golf balls and shoe soles.

Approximately 500 employees work at the Corunna plant.
The facility is ISO 9001:2000 registered.