LSB Industries Inc. said Dec. 30 that the ammonia plant at its Cherokee, Ala. chemical facility resumed production Dec. 24, 2015. The plant was taken out of service for unplanned maintenance Dec. 11, due to a small leak that was detected in a vessel containing hydrogen. LSB estimates that this unplanned outage will reduce operating income by approximately $2.5-$3.0 million.
LSB also announced that the Pryor, Okla. chemical facility remains under repair. Pryor’s urea plant was taken out of service on Nov. 14 in order to repair a CO2 pre-compressor, which was completed and the plant restarted on Dec. 21. However, on Dec. 27, both Pryor’s urea and UAN plants were taken down when the facility’s production of nitric acid had to be halted in order to repair a leaking joint in Pryor’s nitric acid plant. The completion of the nitric acid plant repairs and the resumption of urea and UAN production are expected to occur within the next ten days. In the interim, Pryor has been transporting a portion of its ammonia production to the El Dorado, Ark., facility for use in the production of ammonium nitrate. Management now expects fourth-quarter UAN sales to be 70,000-80,000 st down from the earlier projections of 100,000-110,000 st. These lost sales volumes coupled with the cost of repairs and reduced absorption of fixed costs is expected to lower fourth quarter 2015 operating income by approximately $3.5-$4.0 million.