Incitec Pivot Ltd. (IPL), Southbank, Victoria, reports that all its plants are now operating and “performing well.”
The Waggaman, La., ammonia plant returned to nameplate production at the end of May (GM June 16, p. 31), and since then has been operating reliably at nameplate, IPL Managing Director and CEO Jeanne Johns told analysts and investors in a Market Update on July 29. Waggaman has nameplate capacity of 800,000 mt/y of ammonia.
Waggaman was offline for a total of 14.5 weeks in IPL’s fiscal first-half, which runs to March 31 (GM May 21, p. 27; May 14, p. 1; April 9, p. 1; Feb. 19, p. 33). The downtime resulted from a combination of planned major turnaround activity and other unplanned outages.
Since then, the plant’s restart process – after it went down again on March 17 as a result of a dry gas seal failure and vibrations in the turbine on the induced draft fan – was halted on May 8, with the restart and subsequent repairs taking three weeks.
In this week’s Market Update, the company reported that Waggaman plant operating procedures have been reviewed and rewritten, with 24/7 monitoring among other initiatives at the site.
As previously reported, IPL plans to replace the ammonia cooler at the plant in FY2022 or FY2023, with an expected outage of up to three weeks for the work to be undertaken. Johns said there is the potential to coordinate this work with the Co-Gen project (steam and power independence) from Cornerstone Chemical Co., which operates the Fortier Manufacturing Complex at the site.
IPL’s final planned turnaround for fiscal 2021 at the Moranbah ammonium nitrate plant in Queensland is also completed, and is running at nameplate. The plant began a scheduled major turnaround in early May.
The company reports a 95 percent ammonia reliability during the second-half of FY2021 at the Cheyenne, Wyo., plant. Cheyenne’s operations were impacted by an unplanned outage in 1H FY2021 caused by a bearing failure on the reciprocal compressor, resulting in a 6 percent year-over-year decline in nitric acid production and a 7 percent fall in ammonia production.
A turnaround at Cheyenne is planned for FY2022, and IPL reported preparations are “tracking well.” It will be one of two major turnarounds planned by the company in FY2022. The other is at Phosphate Hill, Queensland, where IPL reported “solid end of campaign performance” (year-to-date 95 percent), and turnaround preparations tracking well.
Johns said the two turnarounds will complete the company’s current turnaround cycle, with the next major turnaround cycle being in FY2025.
Concerning its other manufacturing operations, IPL reported year-to-date manufacturing performance is “in line with expectations,” with nitric acid reliability “strong across the fleet.”
Regarding low carbon ammonia opportunities, Johns said the company’s ammonia assets are capable of blue/green conversion.
IPL’s first-half FY2021 earnings (to March 31, 2021) were adversely impacted by lower production volumes from the three scheduled turnarounds, as well as unexpected plant outages, in particular, at the Waggaman plant. Net profit after tax (NPAT) was down 44 percent to A$36.4 million on revenue of A$1.72 billion compared to the prior year A$64.6 million and A$1.85 billion, respectively. EBIT was down 31 percent, to A$110.2 million from A$159.2 million.
As announced on July 16, the company is implementing changes in its manufacturing model from a global to a regional management structure (GM July 16, p. 29). IPL said the regional model will improve and drive delivery of the company’s manufacturing excellence strategy and ensure “appropriate oversight and support” is provided to its manufacturing operations, particularly while international travel restrictions remain in place.