Some 13 people were transported to local hospitals in stable condition in Buena Park, Calif., on Oct. 13 due to an ammonia leak at a commercial business. One was treated at the scene and 12 more were decontaminated. The leak was reported at 9:15 a.m.
“Firefighters continued their efforts to stop the ammonia leak throughout the day, and were eventually able to mitigate it,” the Orange County Fire Authority said in a statement.
Dozens of Canadian diplomats have left India after the country threatened to revoke their immunity in an “unreasonable and escalatory” violation of international law, said Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly, according to a Bloomberg report on Oct. 19.
Canada relocated 41 staff from its embassy and consulates in the country, leaving only 21 behind, Joly said in Ottawa. It’s the latest development in a diplomatic row that kicked off last month when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there was “credible” evidence that India’s government helped orchestrate the killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in a suburb of Vancouver (GM Sept. 22, p. 1). Modi has dismissed Trudeau’s allegation that India was involved in the murder of Nijjar as “absurd.”
The accusation infuriated the government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which retaliated with several measures including a suspension of visas for Canadians. Joly said India conveyed its plans to strip diplomatic immunity from the envoys by Friday, putting their personal safety at risk.
That left Canada with no choice but to arrange their departure, along with that of their families, the minister said. The result will be less service from Canada’s offices in India and slower processing times for its visa and immigration program.
“Immunities allow diplomats to do their work without fear of reprisal or arrest from the country,” Joly said. “If we allow the norm of diplomatic immunity to be broken, no diplomats anywhere on the planet would be safe. So for this reason, we will not reciprocate.”
With fewer staff, Canada must pause all in-person services at its consulates in Chandigarh, Mumbai, and Bangalore, but those who need consular assistance can still reach out by email or phone or visit the embassy in New Delhi, she said.
India had requested that Canada reduce its diplomatic presence to make it equal to the number of Indians who have diplomatic immunity in Canada. The Canadian government had hoped to negotiate a different outcome. Joly said earlier this month that in moments of tension, having diplomats on the ground was more important than ever.
Unilaterally removing immunity is a violation of the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations, Joly said.
India was the top source of permanent residents, temporary foreign workers, and international students in Canada last year. Immigration Minister Marc Miller said Canada would continue to welcome Indian immigrants, but the reduced number of staff would mean slower processing of visa applications, at least in the short-to-medium term.
In a background briefing with reporters, a Canadian government official said the immigration and visa program would be “severely curtailed.” The reduction in staff would mean a backlog of 17,500 application decisions through the end of December, though it is hoped that processing will return to normal by early 2024, another official said.
A federal appeals court has overruled an August decision by a lower court that suspended the mine license for Canadian-based Brazil Potash, according to a report by Reuters.
Prosecutors had argued the lower court ruling was in effect, but this had been disputed by Brazil Potash, which cited an earlier April ruling by a superior court approving a preliminary license as granted by Amazon State’s Institute of Environmental Protection of the Amazonas (IPAAM) (GM April 14, p. 27).
The company maintains the $2.5 billion, $2.2 million mt/y project is not located on indigenous land, and that regardless more than 60% of the Mura indigenous people voted in favor of the project (GM Sept. 29, p. 1). Advancement of the Autazes Potash Project had been delayed to gain the approval of the Mura (GM Sept. 1, p. 27).
According to the latest report, the appellate court ruled that IPAAM is the proper authority to approve the license since there was no official indigenous territory in the area. The lower court had ruled that the mine must be approved by the federal environmental agency, the Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA).
Brazil Potash reportedly still awaits the National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples (FUNAI) to complete their review of the company’s Indigenous Consultation Study (ECI), which is one of the last items needed prior to issuance of the Installation License required to start project construction. FUNAI is the Brazilian government’s indigenous people’s agency.
Bolivia President Luis Arce Catacora on Oct. 13 inaugurated the country’s first NPK fertilizer plant, according to a Ministry of Hydrocarbons and Energy press release. The new facility, located in Bolivia’s central Cochabamba province, has capacity to produce 60,000 mt/y and will potentially meet 100% of Bolivia’s NPK fertilizers demand, replacing imports.
The Bolivian Company for the Industrialization of Hydrocarbons (EBIH) will manage the plant. The state-owned firm signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Cochabamba provincial government in June 2021 to acquire land in the Santibáñez Industrial Park for the project, with a construction agreement inked in July 2022 (GM July 15, 2022).
The new plant is part of the Bolivian government’s strategy to improve Bolivia’s agricultural productivity and help it become self-sufficient in the production of its own food, said Franklin Molina, Bolivia’s Minister of Hydrocarbons and Energy.
Molina noted that Bolivia has all the raw materials it needs for the new plant. It will use urea from the Bulo Bulo plant, also located in Cochabamba province. The Bulo Bulo facility is operated by state-run oil and gas company Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) and is Bolivia’s only nitrogen fertilizer production facility, with a nameplate capacity of 2,100 mt/y of granular urea.
The UK’s Caddick Construction Group has been chosen to build Yara International ASA’s new global production plant for specialty crop nutrition products and biostimulants in Howden, East Yorkshire, in northeast England, the construction firm announced on its website.
Yara revealed the new $150 million investment in May, which it said will be one of the largest facilities in the world for these products (GM May 26, p. 1). The new plant will be located on the Ozone Business Park in Howden, close to Yara’s existing site in Pocklington, Yorkshire.
The facility is expected to be operational by the end of 2025 and will allow Yara to double the capacity of its YaraVita specialty crop nutrition products and biostimulants, and further expand production capacity if needed. Virtually all of the output from the plant will be exported to markets around the world, Yara said in May.
Caddick Construction said it will deliver a £28 million (approximately $34 million at current exchange rates) contract, including the construction of a manufacturing plant, warehouses, distribution, and other facilities.
State-owned fertilizer-maker holding company PT Pupuk Indonesia plans to build a new plant that will produce 445,500 mt/y of ammonia and 907,500 mt/y of urea, according to Bloomberg, citing Investor Daily.
The new plant is expected to be in operation in 2017. Bank Negara Indonesia and Bank Mandiri are joint mandated lead arranger and book-runner of syndicated loan for the project.
Oslo-based Statkraft, Europe’s largest producer of renewable energy, and Aker Horizons, a green energy developer based in Fornebu, Norway, on Oct. 16 announced plans to partner on a large-scale green hydrogen and ammonia project in Narvik, Norway.
The plant under development at Kvandal
in Narvik has a planned capacity of up to 600 MW and will be one of the first
large-scale plants for green ammonia in Europe, with an expected production of
1,000-1,500 mt/d. The project hopes to reach final investment decision in 2025
and plans to start commercial operations in 2028.
The parties aim to establish a jointly owned company, Narvik Green Ammonia DA.
Aker Horizons has so far signed letters of intent with several major European
energy, industrial, and chemical companies. The project has entered into a
long-term power agreement with Statkraft and will also look for opportunities
for collaboration with possible offtakers in Norway, including the maritime
industry.
The site at Kvandal is being prepared and developed with a clear plan to facilitate the establishment of additional green industry. The parties noted that the Norwegian and German governments have established a joint task force to work on enabling the large-scale supply of hydrogen from Norway to Germany by 2030.
“The partnership established between Statkraft and Aker Horizons constitutes an important step forward in positioning Narvik Green Ammonia to contribute to this supply,” said Sverre Isak Bjørn, Asset Development Director, Aker Horizons.
K+S Group and the Hessen branch of Germany’s Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation, BUND, have now reached an agreement to achieve improvements for the Werra and Weser rivers and bring part of their legal dispute to an end, K+S reported on Oct. 19.
K+S in late 2021 secured a new discharge permit from the Kassel Regional Council for 2022-2027, under which the maximum annual discharge of saline wastewater permitted from its Werra and Neuhof-Ellers production sites was reduced to 5 million cubic meters, down from the permitted 6.7 million cubic meters in 2021 (GM Dec. 31, 2021).
The Hessen branch of BUND filed a lawsuit against the discharge permit, however, and also applied for the permit to be suspended until the facts to the case had been clarified.
As part of this week’s settlement with the environmental association, K+S said it has undertaken to “optimize” the discharge of saline water under the existing discharge permit from the beginning of 2024 “in such a way the Flora-Fauna-Habitat (FFH) area between Philippsthal and Heringen is relieved,” in addition to the gradual improvement in the permitted maximum annual discharge of saline wastewater already planned.
“For this part of the water body between the discharge points Hattorf and Wintershall, BUND and the company have agreed on compliance with an additional target value for chloride of 600 milligrams per liter (mg/l) at the sampling point at the Wintershall entrance,” K+S said.
K+S said it has also made a binding commitment to comply with “even stricter” requirements for mineral concentrations at the Gerstungen gauging station than the limits stipulated under the discharge permit granted for 2022-2027. Under that permit, a limit value for chloride of 2,000 mg/l was applied at the Gerstungen gauging station for 2022, dropping to 1,820 mg/l for 2023, and to a maximum of 1,700 mg/l for the years 2024 and 2025.
As part of the interim agreement reached with K+S, the Hessen branch of BUND has withdrawn its application for the discharge permit to be suspended. Following this interim settlement with BUND, K+S said it is now engaging with the environmental group on the issue of the premature termination of the injection of saline wastewater into deep rock strata.
PJSC PhosAgro said it has begun supplying water-soluble monoammonium phosphate (MAP) fertilizer to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan and other markets in Central Asia.
The Russian fertilizer group noted in an Oct.16 press release that the so-named Apaliqua NP 12:61 fertilizer is ideally suited for hot, dry climates and can be used in drip and other irrigation systems, in both open and protected soil. It said the preparation is suitable for foliar topdressing or as an element of complex formulations for plant nutrition.
PhosAgro is supplying the fertilizer to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan through its own distribution network, PhosAgro-Region, which operates in Russia and neighboring countries. PhosAgro began production of Apaliqua NP 12:61 in January this year.
“According to our estimates, the markets for liquid and water-soluble fertilizers in Central Asia have huge potential,” said Andrey Vovk, PhosAgro-Region General Director.
Acron Group reported its commercial output of fertilizers in the first nine months of this year increased 0.2%, to 5.268 million mt from 5.258 million in the same prior-year period.
Nitrogen fertilizer output was down 0.5% year-over-year, to 3.45 million mt from 3.47 million mt. Of this total, ammonium nitrate production declined 14%, to 1.47 million mt from 1.71 million mt, while urea production grew 6%, to 1.02 million mt from 963,000 mt. UAN production increased 11% year-over-year, to 889,000 mt from 798,000 mt.
Acron’s production of calcium nitrate (CN) reached 72,000 mt during the nine-month period, well above the 2,000 mt produced in the same year-ago period. The Russian fertilizer group commissioned its first CN production plant in August 2022, with capacity of 100,000 mt/y (GM Aug. 12, 2022).
Acron has a second CN production unit with 135,000 mt/y capacity under construction, and announced earlier this month that it is increasing capacity at the existing CN unit to 135,000 mt/y (GM Oct. 13, p. 25).
Acron’s compex fertilizers output in the first nine months rose 2%, to 1.81 million mt from 1.78 million mt. Of this total, NPK fertilizers production reached 1.74 million mt, a 4.5% increase from the prior year’s 1.67 million mt.
