Incitec Pivot Ltd., Southbank, Australia, gave an update on its Waggaman, La., ammonia plant on Sept. 13, saying the plant is expected to be offline for a total of four weeks. The company said after running at nameplate capacity since its restart at the end of May, the Waggaman plant was brought down on Saturday, Aug. 28, in anticipation of Hurricane Ida.
IPL said inspections undertaken since Ida have not identified any material damage to the plant and the plant’s restart has been awaiting restoration of high voltage industrial power and utilities from third-party providers. Factoring in the anticipated restoration of power and utilities, the total outage is expected to be approximately four weeks from the date the plant was brought down.
Based on current market prices for ammonia, and the planned restart schedule, the loss of earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) is approximately US$28 million. The company said the figure reflects that IPL called force majeure under its customer contracts for the supply of ammonia from the plant.