Fertilizer

The Heartland Greenway carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) pipeline, a 1,300-mile system that would traverse five Midwestern states, has snagged a top Iowa fertilizer company as a customer, according to Navigator CO2 Ventures LLC. Under the agreement with Dutch fertilizer giant OCI NV, Navigator would transport and sequester up to 1.13 million metric tons/year (mmty)…

Two Canadian giants in the agriculture business, Agrium Inc. and Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. (PotashCorp), on Monday announced plans to merge and become the world’s largest producer of fertilizer, in an all-stock deal valued at $36 billion.

With a collapse of plans for a highly promoted multi-billion-dollar fertilizer plant in the state, North Dakota-based MDU Resources Group’s pipeline unit on Wednesday pulled its application at FERC for a 96-mile, 20-inch diameter natural gas pipeline that would have served the proposed plant.

A multi-billion-dollar St. Paul, MN-based agricultural cooperative conglomerate said Wednesday it is dropping long-standing plans to develop a major natural gas-based fertilizer plant in North Dakota, causing energy officials there to raise doubts of plans to add badly needed gas infrastructure and power generation.

Three years ago, as the amounts of associated natural gas being flared continued to soar in the Bakken Shale, North Dakota industry and state officials saw hope…

A proposal to cut down on flared associated natural gas supplies in the Bakken was rejected by the North Dakota Senate Wednesday on a 34-13 vote. The measure (SB 2315) by Sen. Tim Mathern would have eliminated any hardship exemptions to the state’s ban after a year. Viewed as one of the toughest proposals to combat flaring yet, SB 2315 was strongly opposed by the industry, led by the North Dakota Petroleum Council (see Shale Daily, Feb. 12). State officials increasingly have worried about flaring, which has stayed above 30%, but below a September 2011 record of 36%. Senators opposing the measure urged patience in letting the industry address the problem. Even with the ability to flare gas for a year without paying taxes or royalties, and beyond that to seek hardship status for extending the practice, some operators are trying to find uses for the gas, including using it to produce electricity to run hydraulic fracturing equipment, and to produce fertilizer (see Shale Daily, Dec. 26, 2012).

The closure of the Agrium Inc. fertilizer plant in Kenai, AK, due to a shortage of natural gas in the region, which was announced this week (see Daily GPI, Sept. 26) could be the shot in the arm needed to move an already-pondered “bullet” pipeline from Alaska’s North Slope to bring gas to Cook Inlet.

Top fertilizer manufacturer Terra Industries Inc. has indefinitely suspended all production at its Woodward, OK plant in the near term because of high natural gas costs. The shutdown is due to mechanical repairs and catalyst changes, but Terra will not resume production in the near term because the gas costs haven’t been offset by price increases in nitrogen products and methanol, the company said.

Leading fertilizer producer Terra Industries said effective Jan. 1, it will suspend ammonia production at its Yazoo City, MS, facility because of high natural gas costs. The closure is the second U.S. closure by Terra in the past month. In late November, it suspended all production at its Woodward, OK, facility for the same reason (see Daily GPI, Nov. 22).