UPDATED: 03/08/2014

CHS is raising up to $250 million $353.2 to $406.2 million from a share offering to fund its greenfield ammonia plant in Spiritwood, ND, according the preliminary prospectus it registered with the SEC yesterday (the final prospectus is available here).

“We intend to use the net proceeds of this offering for general corporate purposes. Those purposes may include partially funding the anticipated construction of a nitrogen fertilizer manufacturing plant to be located in Spiritwood, North Dakota. Although the exact cost of that construction is still uncertain, we currently expect that it would have a total cost of more than $2.0 billion” …

Read the preliminary prospectus in full.

And a local news story from late January gave a project update:

“I think we’re making progress and doing things that need to be done,” said Brian Schouvieller, CHS senior vice president. “The FEED (front end engineering and design) study is done and we’re waiting on the final report, we’re working on getting a gas pipeline, we’re working on securing the water we need, and our air permits are in public comments and could be finalized in a few weeks …

“We want to be moving dirt by this June,” Schouvieller said. “We want to have the project up and out of the ground at the end of the 2014 construction season.”

Read the full story at Prairie Business (01/20/2014).

On Monday, CHS announced that it was distributing $433 million to its co-op owners, from a net income of $992.4 million in 2013. I was waiting for an excuse to upgrade the project’s likelihood in my database.

See the updated project page for CHS’s greenfield in Spiritwood, ND.