An explosion ripped through LSB Industries Inc.’s El Dorado Chemical Co. nitrogen complex in El Dorado, Ark., early May 15, damaging much of the facility – some of it significantly. LSB said that fortunately none of its employees or anyone in the El Dorado community was injured, and it believes there was no environmental release.
LSB said the most significant damage was to the DSN (direct strong nitric acid) concentrated nitric acid plant and surrounding equipment after a reactor exploded. There are four nitric acid plants at the facility, with a combined capacity of about 493,000 st/y, according to the International Fertilizer Development Center. The DSN unit comprises about 20 percent of El Dorado’s acid production. The other three nitric acid plants also suffered some damage, as did the control room and a sulfuric acid plant.
LSB said sulfuric acid volumes are a minor component of the facility.
Company-wide, LSB nitric acid capacity is listed as approximately 1.2 million st, with El Dorado representing about 41 percent of company capacity. El Dorado can also upgrade acid to other products, particularly ammonium nitrate. Site capacity is listed at 602,000 st/y, just less than half of LSB’s 1.3 million st/y capacity.
LSB said that due to the control room damage it is still unknown when any of the nitric acid plants could return to production. The room serves all the units. In addition, the company said it cannot give a timeframe as to when it will be able to complete its investigation. For now, the entire facility remains offline, without an estimate of when it will return.
The company buys anhydrous ammonia for its production at El Dorado, as does the facility it operates in Baytown, Texas. Higher margin LSB units at Cherokee, Ala., and Pryor, Okla., use natural gas.
In the first quarter, El Dorado represented some 44 percent of revenues for LSB’s Chemical segment and 29 percent of operating income. However, the company noted that the income percentage was up due to outages at the company’s more profitable Pryor, Okla., nitrogen unit. The UAN unit at Pryor is expected to remain offline for repairs through most of the second quarter.
LSB has notified its insurer of this event. The company’s insurance policy, which provides replacement cost coverage, has a $1 million deductible for property damage. LSB’s business interruption insurance covering certain lost profits and extra expense has a 30-day waiting period. The company said it will issue further communication about this event as warranted.