Dow, one of the world’s largest petrochemical companies, announced in its fourth quarter earnings conference call on January 29, 2026, that it will proceed with an expansion of its ethane cracker located in Fort Saskatchewan, AB. The expansion, dubbed the Path2Zero project (artist rendition below), originally sanctioned in November 2023 and then placed on hold in April 2025, will more than double the existing cracker’s output of polyethylene and will require a commensurate significant expansion in its consumption of ethane as feedstock (see Shock to the System for further details). The expansion will include additional emission abatement technologies to generate net zero Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions with a revised estimated total cost of C$10.3 billion (US$7.5 billion, originally US$8.1 billion).
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