Agrium Inc. announced on June 3 that it has decided to suspend engineering development on its proposed $3 billion nitrogen greenfield project in the U.S. Cornbelt, and focus instead on efforts to secure a strategic partner and a gas contract for the project at this time.
Agrium first announced plans for the plant in June 2012, saying at that time that the facility would produce approximately 2 million mt/y of primarily urea and UAN, with some excess ammonia left over to sell (GM June 18, 2012). Agrium said then that the facility Agrwas needed because of tight nitrogen supplies in the Midwest where the company operates many retail facilities. Initial plans called for the plant to be fast-tracked for a startup in early 2017, pending board approval.
Ron Wilkinson, Agrium senior vice president and president of Wholesale, said back in June 2012 that the Midwest facility would fill “a fairly big market gap” for the company. “We’re in the west, we’re in the east, but we’ve got a little bit of a gap in the middle, especially when it comes to urea and UAN,” Wilkinson said. “This would really fit that market very well for us. And obviously, our retail is very, very big there.”
Agrium also announced on Monday that it expects to reach a decision in the second half of 2013 on its proposed brownfield expansion at the company’s Borger, Texas, facility. The $500 million Borger expansion calls for an ammonia debottleneck and a urea brownfield, which would add approximately 120,000 mt/y of ammonia production and 640,000 mt/y of urea production and also allow the company to better flex between urea and ammonia. That project, also announced in June 2012, initially called for a startup in 2016.
Agrium had said back in June 2012 that its goal was to have full board approval within the year for its Midwest greenfield project, the Borger expansion, and another expansion planned for its Redwater, Alberta, facility. The Redwater project, which called for a $150 million urea debottleneck that would have added 170,000 mt/y of urea for a planned startup in 2015, has also reportedly been suspended.
Current urea capacity at Redwater is 700,000 mt/y. The facility also produces ammonia, MAP, and ammonium sulfate, with total annual capacity of 2.2 million mt of finished fertilizer products.