Borealis committed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by using natural gas in Stenungsund, Sweden

Borealis AB, DONG Sweden and Nova Naturgas jointly announced today at a press conference the signature of a deal between DONG Sweden and Borealis to provide natural gas to Borealis in Stenungsund. Under the agreement, 35 million cubic metres of natural gas per year – enough to heat approximately 20,000 houses – will be delivered through a pipeline from the North Sea in Denmark to Sweden.

"This agreement demonstrates Borealis´ commitment to finding sustainable solutions for better energy use in its plants", explained Trude Andreassen, Cracker Manager at Stenungsund. "Once the supply of natural gas is secured, fuel gas customers in the area will benefit with more stable deliveries of fuel gas. At Borealis, propane gas used currently for producing steam will be mainly used as feedstock for the cracker furnaces."

The use of natural gas for steam production will not only provide flexibility and profitability in the use of feedstock in its operations. It will more importantly enable the Stenungsund petrochemical complex to decrease CO2 emissions by 8 to 10 000 tones per year. In May 2004 Nova Naturgas opened a 60 km long natural gas pipeline from Gothenburg to Stenungsund. A connecting pipeline of 1,500 metres will now be built, mainly on Borealis-owned land to connect to Borealis' cracker plant. A measuring and control unit will be built close to Borealis in Sweden.

Peter Blomberg, Sales Manager for DONG Sverige, said: "We have now one more large industry customer where natural gas will be used in the process to produce products we all use in our daily life. We expect to find new natural gas customers in the region in the future. The agreement is in line with DONG's ambition to increase the number of end customers in Sweden. When the natural gas replaces oil the efficiency and the competitiveness will increase, and at the same time reduce the stress on the environment."

Nova Naturgas stated that the investment in a natural gas system to Stenungsund now results in one more big industrial natural gas customer, Borealis. "It's with pleasure we now start the work to connect one more big industry customer to the natural gas system," comments Bertil Rosenlund, CEO for Nova Naturgas.

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