An explosion and fire occurred on April 12 at Agrium Inc.’s Redwater #1 ammonia plant in Alberta. The incident occurred at about 1:35 p.m. as employees were restarting the ammonia plant after a scheduled 10-day maintenance shutdown. Local reports said the explosion reportedly ignited hydrogen gas, causing a fire that was extinguished by fire and rescue crews in about 30-35 minutes.

No injuries were reported as a result of the explosion and fire. Peter Stenzel, Agrium’s general manager, Canadian Nitrogen Operations, told Green Markets that five employees were in the building at the time of the incident. The Redwater plant has 500 total employees, as well as 100 contractors. The incident prompted a general alarm at the facility, Stenzel said, and as a result all employees moved to “safe rooms” while emergency response crews brought the fire under control.

Stenzel said there is no estimate yet on how much damage the plant sustained, but the fire and explosion appeared to be limited to one compressor deck. Stenzel described it as a small area, but did not want to speculate on how long the plant would be down as a result of the incident. He said the extent of the damage would be assessed in the coming days after the site is secured “to make sure it’s safe.”

Redwater #1 is the smaller swing ammonia plant at the site. It has the capability to produce 260,000 mt of ammonia annually, but only runs seasonally to meet demand. Redwater #2, the larger ammonia plant at the site, has capacity of more than 700,000 mt/year. Cindy Andrews, community relations specialist at Agrium, said only Redwater #1 was impacted by the explosion and fire, while Redwater #2 continues operation.

The Redwater facility has total annual production capacity of 2.2 million mt of finished fertilizer products. In addition to ammonia, it produces 700,000 mt/y of urea, 650,000 mt/y of MAP, and 330,000 mt/y of ammonium sulfate.

Agrium said the cause of the explosion remains under investigation, and it is working with the appropriate regulatory agencies, including Alberta Occupational Health and Safety.

“Agrium is committed to protecting the quality of the environment in which it operates and ensuring the health and safety of our employees, customers and the public impacted by our operations,” the company said in an April 13 statement.

Thirty freight cars carrying fertilizer derailed in southeastern New Mexico on April 13, causing considerable damage to tracks and a bridge that handle train traffic out of the Carlsbad, N.M., area.

The accident occurred south of Artesia, N.M, on the Carlsbad Subdivision mainline. That stretch of track is run by Southwestern Railroad Inc. of Carlsbad, a shortline operating for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. A total of 35 cars derailed in the crash, with the remaining five carrying salt. The derailed cars were part of a 96-car train, and the cause of the accident is under investigation. No injuries were reported as a result of the derailment.

John McCormick, general manager of Southwestern Railroad, told Green Markets that a majority of the derailed cars carrying fertilizer were from Intrepid Potash. A source with The Mosaic Co. confirmed on April 15 that one of the railcars was theirs as well, and that it may have been loaded with K-Mag fertilizer. Both Intrepid and Mosaic operate potash and langbeinite mines in the Carlsbad area. Intrepid had not returned calls by press time.

McCormick said 34 of the 35 cars involved in the crash were completely destroyed; approximately 3,700 tons of total product were lost. McCormick said none of the fertilizer material involved in the crash was recovered. The crash also destroyed a 200-foot bridge spanning the dry bed of the Penasco River. Local reports said clean-up crews with 100-ton cranes were called in to remove tons of bent metal from around the tracks.

McCormick said there was no estimate on how long the bridge and track repair would take, but said the railroad is hoping to have at least a temporary track operating within a week. He said on April 15 that Southwestern Railroad was waiting for engineering designs “to determine what we can go back with.”

Some fertilizer industry contacts expressed concern that the damaged line will impact shipments of potash products from Carlsbad, particularly as the busy spring planting season kicks into high gear.

Southwestern Railroad began operating the BNSF Carlsbad Subdivision in 2004 under a lease agreement, and the line includes industrial spurs serving potash mines east of Carlsbad and Loving, N.M. In addition to its potash producing customers, the line serves a petroleum refinery in Artesia, and various feed mills and agricultural-related business south of Roswell, N.M., and also in Portales, N.M.

The Mosaic Co. said April 11 that the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has vacated a preliminary injunction previously granted by the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida regarding Mosaic’s South Fort Meade mine. The preliminary injunction had prevented reliance on a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ permit for the mining of wetlands in an extension of Mosaic’s South Fort Meade, Florida, phosphate rock mine in Hardee County. The Eleventh Circuit also set aside the district court’s remand of the permit to the Corps.

The court of appeals heard arguments in the case April 4.

Mosaic is currently mining approximately 200 acres of the site as a result of a prior settlement with the plaintiffs “environmental groups, including the Sierra Club (GM Nov. 1, 2010).

Even without the contested phosphate from South Fort Meade, Mosaic says it would have sufficient rock from other Florida production and Bayovar to get it through calendar 2011.

In vacating the preliminary injunction, the court remanded the case to the district court for a decision on the merits to determine, after a review of the full administrative record, whether the Corps came to a rational permit decision to be analyzed through the deferential lens mandated by the Administrative Procedure Act. The Court of Appeals also directed the district court to stay the effectiveness of the permit for 90 days to permit the district court to make a decision on the merits based on this deferential standard.

“We appreciate this timely ruling and are pleased with the outcome and directions provided by the Eleventh Circuit,” said Richard Mack, Mosaic’s executive vice president and general counsel. “We look forward to presenting our case to the district court as mandated by the court of appeals. The Hardee County Extension permit was an exhaustive, multi-year effort that resulted in the most extensively reviewed and environmentally protective phosphate mining permit in Florida’s history. We expect that our ongoing operations at South Fort Meade, together with other mitigation efforts, will be sufficient to support our finished phosphate production for the 90-day period set forth by the court of appeals.”

Israel Chemicals Inc. (ICL) has announced three major deals in the past week. The moves included an acquisition, streamlining its Spanish potash operations, and developing a mine in northeastern England, where huge deposits of a mineral for use as a fertilizer were discovered.

The acquisition of Spain’s Grupo Empresarial Agromediterraneo S.L. (Fuentes) is designed to strengthen ICL’s position in the specialty fertilizer market. ICL did not disclose financial details, but local industry sources estimated the purchase at $85-$110 million.

The acquisition includes Fuentes’ line of proprietary liquid and soluble fertilizers and bulk blends, as well as its production facilities, which are located in Totana and Cartagena, Spain. The Spanish company had estimated revenues of Euros113 million in 2010. Following the acquisition, Fuentes and its subsidiaries will become a part of ICL Specialty Fertilizers, a unit of ICL Fertilizers, the Israeli company’s largest division.

ICL said the acquisition establishes the company as the leading supplier of specialty fertilizers in the fast-growing Spanish market, and is part of the company’s strategy to broaden its activities in the specialty fertilizer market. “The specialty fertilizer niche is growing 8 percent annually, which is much faster than the general fertilizer market,” said Oz Levi, chemical industry analyst at Leader Capital Markets, a leading Tel Aviv-based investment bank. He added that specialty fertilizers currently account for only 2 percent of the total fertilizer market.

ICL is a major player, producing some 600,000 mt annually out of total global production of 2 million mt. The Spanish acquisition came on the heels of the purchase earlier this year of specialty assets from Scotts Miracle Gro for $270 million.

As part of an effort to expand its operations outside Israel, the company announced plans to begin mining polyhalite ore at its mines located at Boulby, England. The decision follows geological studies conducted by Cleveland Potash Ltd. (CPL), the British-based subsidiary of ICL Fertilizers. The studies indicate that the polyhalite ore is located beneath the potash that CPL currently mines. The company is the only potash manufacturer in England. Polyhalite is not currently used commercially as a fertilizer, but ICL said that it could potentially be a substitute for potassium-based fertilizers for various crops, particularly fruits and vegetables sensitive to chlorine. Polyhalite also contains magnesium sulfate, which can be marketed without any future processing for direct applications to the soil or as a raw material for specialty fertilizers.

CPL noted that the process of mining the polyhalite will be simplified due to the fact that infrastructure and equipment are already located at the site, and that the reserves are located directly below the potash layer. As a result, the company expects to be able to mine hundreds of thousands of tons of the mineral during the first year at a relatively low cost.

ICL said that polyhalite is a unique mineral salt that can be used as a specialty fertilizer. In its natural state, polyhalite can be used as a specialty fertilizer for organic and other applications, or as a raw material for the production of specialty fertilizers. In addition, ICL’s tests have recently confirmed that polyhalite can be processed into new, advanced products with significant economic potential. “CPL could be producing up to 600,000 mt of polyhalite a year in 2015, and this could translate into annual revenue of $100 million,” predicted Leader’s Levi. He added that the extremely high margins would make production extremely profitable for ICL.

To take full advantage of the polyhalite opportunity, ICL intends to establish a plant near the Tees Valley for processing polyhalite into specialty fertilizers and industrial products. The British government announced that it views thi

Intrepid Potash Inc. on April 14 announced preliminary sales and production results for the first quarter 2011, highlighted the recognition of income associated with deferred insurance proceeds, and provided an update on certain capital projects. On an unaudited basis, during the first quarter of 2011, Intrepid estimates that it produced between 230,000-240,000 st of potash, and sold between 190,000-200,000 st. Potash production during the first quarter includes the seasonal production from the harvest of its Moab solar evaporation ponds. Intrepid estimates its average net realized sales price for potash during the quarter was approximately $435-$445/st.

Intrepid estimates that it produced approximately 25,000-35,000 st of Trio^(R) and sold approximately 45,000-55,000 st of the product, with approximately half the sales being standard-sized product. Intrepid estimates that its average net realized sales price for Trio^(R) during the quarter was approximately $195-$205/st.

The Sulphur Institute’s (TSI) Sulphur World Symposium 2011 April 11-14 drew a record attendance in New York City for the annual event. TSI said some 258 delegates from 33 countries were in attendance.

TSI also used the event to launch a new educational program Sulphur – an advantaged element, to increase awareness of sulfur’s role in daily life and sustainability.

“Sulfur is essential for protein formation in crops, and thus, absolutely critical to improving the nutrition and health of many in the world who go to sleep hungry each night,” said Catherine Randazzo, TSI president and CEO. “TSI’s agricultural programs have focused on China and India, documenting production level increases of 10 percent or more with the addition of this relatively low-cost input-an economical benefit to the entire agricultural value chain.” For more information, see www.sulphurinstitute.org.

TSI also noted the benefits of sulfur as construction material, such as concrete and asphalt. Paul Kalb, division head, Brookhaven National Laboratory, which is at the forefront of this research, spoke to the group and took them for a tour of Brookhaven.

Kicking off the conference was Robert Wescott, president, Keybridge Research LLC, who gave the global economic outlook. He noted that the U.S. has been in recovery since July 2009, with business doing well, but the consumer still trying to get back on his feet.

Wescott sees three reasons for optimism in the U.S. He said the job situation is improving and he sees good job growth in the spring and summer. He said a weak dollar has improved exports. And he says business has $2 trillion in cash to hire people and for capital spending.

In Europe, the recovery is a mixed bag, with the best results in Germany, France, and The Netherlands, and the worst in Greece, Portugal, Ireland, and Spain.

Wescott said Latin America is booming, and the global financial crisis was only a small bump in the road for Brazil.

Data from China is mixed, he said. While construction has started to boom again, exports are off to Europe, the U.S., and the rest of Asia.

While Japan will undoubtedly rebuild after the recent earthquake and tsunami, he said those events had a devastating impact on that country’s GDP, wiping out 5 percent. Although conditions will start to improve, he noted that long term there will be lower consumption due to lost wealth.

From his own observations, Wescott said he does not believe that the turmoil in much of the Arab world will spread to Saudi Arabia.

Wescott is concerned about inflation, saying that it is going up; it is not just higher commodity prices. In addition, he said there needs to be a restoration of normal credit rates. He said the Fed needs to start raising interest rates.

Stephen Kopits, managing director, Douglas-Westwood Ltd., gave a global energy outlook. Fearing tight oil supplies, he said a recession could return between now and 2013. However, on the natural gas side, he said the impact of shale gas could be even larger globally than it has been in the U.S. where gas production is up 15 percent since 2005. He said shale gas is displacing many conventional producers.

Robert Bertram, director of agriculture, research, and technology, U.S. Agency for International Development, talked about food security and the precarious situation the world is in today with low grain stocks and the possibility that weather conditions could worsen the situation.

Fiona Boyd, market analyst with ICIS/PentaSul, said there is a tight world sulfur balance, with an estimated 51.9 million mt of production in 2010, and consumption at 52.2 million mt. This could go on for some time, as she says there is not expected to be any significant sulfur surplus until 2020.

Terry Roberts, president, International Plant Nutrition Institute, citing extensive soil s