Agrium Inc. alerted customers on June 13 that repairs to its Carseland, Alberta, nitrogen facility have now been completed and the facility has resumed operations. As a result, Agrium said the force majeure that was declared on April 2 (GM April 7, p. 1) when the facility went down has been removed.
Agrium reported on April 2 that it had to shut down ammonia and urea operations at the Carseland plant due to the failure of the high pressure boiler feedwater supply pumps. It said at the time that it would not be able to fully perform its product supply obligations for urea, ammonia, and ESN for approximately 8 weeks. The supply contracts that were impacted by the declaration included more than 200 separate urea contracts, some 106 ESN contracts, and more than 200 ammonia contracts.
Agrium updated that forecast on May 9, saying it would continue to supply available ammonia and urea to customers on an allocated basis during the force majeure, but ESN – which is produced solely at Carseland – would not be available until production resumed at the facility.
Carseland production capacity is placed at 680,000 mt/y for urea, with ammonia production rated at 535,000 mt/y gross and 135,000 mt/y net.