One by one, major fertilizer producers in Texas and Oklahoma reported that their plants were offline due to the cold weather. LSB Industries Inc., Oklahoma City, announced Feb. 16 that on Feb. 12 it temporarily took its Pryor, Okla., facility out of service as a result of the recent surge in natural gas prices that has taken place in the region due to extremely cold temperatures.
Also related to the cold weather, the company said the operator of the pipeline that supplies natural gas to the Pryor facility experienced significant weather-related gas supply impacts and, as a result, curtailed gas distribution to commercial customers. LSB said it will restart production at Pryor as soon as natural gas prices and availability normalize.
PCI Nitrogen, Pasadena, Texas, announced Feb. 16 that on Feb. 13 in order to supply additional power to the Houston electric grid through its cogeneration facility, it elected to shut down ammonium sulfate production. On Feb. 15 due to the historic cold temperatures, the company was forced to shut all production at the facility which includes ammonium sulfate, sulfuric acid, ammonium thiosulfate, and power production.
As of Feb. 16, the company said it is unable to say when the facility will return to normal operations and will depend on the weather moderating and raw material supply normalizing.
Nutrien Ltd. reported that it has taken down its Borger, Texas, nitrogen plant as a result of gas interruptions. The Geismar, La., plant was running as of Feb. 16, but the company was closely monitoring gas supply for possible disruptions. Although Nutrien’s Aurora and White Springs phosphate sites were running without disruption, the feed operations have been affected by the weather.
Nutrien’s Canadian operations plants are currently running with the exception of the nitrogen plant in Fort Saskatchewan, where the company has moved up an outage that was originally planned for Q2 to address a few freeze-up issues.
It was generally assumed that other plants in Texas and Oklahoma, and to a lesser extent, Louisiana and Kansas, were facing the same or similar problems. Yara’s Freeport, Texas, ammonia plant was already offline due to mechanical problems, and the Incitec Pivot Ltd. ammonia plant in Waggaman, La., had already extended its major turnaround to mid-March (see related story).
The Mosaic Co. indicated in its Feb. 18 earnings call that it was having freezing problems at a Louisiana plant and would likely have to shut down the plant – or parts of it – for a couple of days. Mosaic did not specify the plant or respond to inquiries, but sources suggested the Faustina ammonia plant was most likely.
Likewise, CF Industries Holdings Inc. in its Feb. 18 earnings call indicated its Oklahoma plants were impacted by the weather, though it did not specify the extent, saying only that this would impact UAN more than urea. Overall, addressing the cold weather and the industry in general, CF told analysts that lost production could be several hundred thousand tons for both ammonia and upgraded products. “It is still very cold in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas and these plants, if they are not shut down appropriately, will not come up appropriately,” CF said Feb. 18.
In the meantime, there were reports that Iowa Fertilizer Co.’s Wever plant was offline. However, the company had not responded to inquiries at press time. Likewise, Koch Industries Inc. and Martin Midstream Partners LP, had not responded as to the status of their plants. However, the latter pushed back its earnings release due to the weather (see related story).
As of Feb. 17, the Houston Ship Channel, which had closed earlier in the week, was again open, according to Bloomberg. The news service also reported that the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) expected the Texas power grid to come out of emergency conditions on Feb. 19.