UPDATED: 11/13/2017 — see Change Log

OWNER: Pacific Coast Fertilizer (joint venture)
PROJECT: Brownfield ammonia plant[memberful does_not_have_subscription=”1314-ammonia-industry-annual-subscription,1311-ammonia-industry-monthly-subscription,3338-ammonia-industry-30-day-subscription”]

COST (reported): $1 billion
JOB CREATION (reported): 1,000 construction, 100 permanent — no Job Openings yet [LINK]
START-UP DATE (reported): 2021

CAPACITY	USGS[1]	COMPANY[2]	PERMIT[3]	ADJUSTED[4]
Ammonia		1,650 stpd	[Membership required]	[Membership required]
Units: stpd, stpy, mtpd, mtpy = short/metric tons per day/year. [1] United States Geological Survey (USGS) Mineral Yearbook, Nitrogen gives capacity in metric tons per year, calculated as “engineering design capacity adjusted for 340 days per year of effective production capability,” rounded to three significant digits. Source: most recent year, Table 4: Domestic Producers of Ammonia, http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/nitrogen/. [2] Local news reports. Sources: linked below. [3] [Membership required]. No air permit documents yet. Sources: linked below. [4] [Membership required]. See Methodology.

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SUMMARY STATUS: Planning Phase
First announced in September 2016, Pacific Coast Fertilizer’s plans to build a new ammonia plant have been in development for some time and the joint venture includes heavyweight industrial partners. In late 2017, the city began initial work on an environmental impact statement; the start of construction is still years away.

COST: $800 million to $1 billion
JOB CREATION: 1,000 construction, 80-100 permanent — no Job Openings yet [LINK]
START-UP DATE: 2022 estimate, 2021 announced
LIKELIHOOD: Unlikely — see Methodology

CAPACITY	USGS[1]	COMPANY[2]	PERMIT[3]	ADJUSTED[4]
Ammonia		1,650 stpd		546,352 mtpy
Units: stpd, stpy, mtpd, mtpy = short/metric tons per day/year. [1] United States Geological Survey (USGS) Mineral Yearbook, Nitrogen gives capacity in metric tons per year, calculated as “engineering design capacity adjusted for 340 days per year of effective production capability,” rounded to three significant digits. Source: most recent year, Table 4: Domestic Producers of Ammonia, http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/nitrogen/. [2] Local news reports. Sources: linked below. [3] No air permit documents yet. Sources: linked below. [4] Adjusted Capacity is in metric tons per year assuming operations for 365 days per year; based on information from company reps. See Methodology.

FEEDSTOCK: Natural gas
END PRODUCTS: Ammonia

RESEARCH NOTES:
In September 2016, Pacific Coast Fertilizer (PCF) announced that it was considering building an ammonia plant at Mint Farm Industrial Park, in Longview, WA.

In October 2017, the city agreed to begin work on an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), the start of the regulatory process. The next month, the City of Longview published detailed project information for the first time as part of its public consultation process. These EIS disclosures included the potential start of construction in mid-2019.

In May 2017, local news had reported that the Longview City Council “unanimously approved a $1.78 million sale of city lands.”

After evaluating the area for about a year, a new company has agreed to build a fertilizer plant at Longview’s Mint Farm Industrial Park that would employ up to 100 workers …

Its 53-acre plant [later 61 acre] would be built in the heart of the Mint Farm. Pacific Coast Fertilizer would buy 17 acres from the city of Longview and the remaining acreage from PNW Metals Recycling …

Construction of the plant would require a peak workforce of 1,000 people, … going into operation in 2021 at a cost of $800 million to $1 billion and eventually employing 80 to 100 people at family wage jobs, spokesman David Richey said.

“We should look to start construction and operation as soon as possible. There is substantial permitting processing to go through. …. But we believe there is a strong market demand for fertilizer and would like to open our doors as soon as possible,” Richey said, reporting that financing for the project is lined up.
The Daily News, Longview’s Mint Farm chosen for $1 billion fertilizer plant, 05/04/2017

The plant remains in the “project definition stage” and therefore many changes may yet occur. The initial plans called for a “state-of-the-art facility in the Pacific Northwest for the production and distribution of nitrogen-based fertilizer.” Specifically, the project is a natural gas-fed ammonia plant, with a capacity of 1,650 stpd or about 500,000 mtpy, but no facilities for upgrading the ammonia into other fertilizer products.

While the project’s website lauds its production of “local” fertilizer, its scale and location implied an international export facility from the outset. According to information released to support the EIS process, ammonia would be stored on-site in two tanks of 30,000 tons capacity (metric, or 33,000 short tons). Ammonia would then be shipped out by truck (100-200 trucks per week) or delivered by pipeline to the nearby, existing dock, “via a 16-inch diameter, approximately 1.5-mile insulated product line,” for export by 12-15 marine vessels per year, “with the number of vessels declining over time as they increase the supply to the Pacific Northwest’s agricultural community.”

Located on the Columbia River, the “shovel-ready” Longview site is a few miles downstream from Dyno Nobel’s plant at St. Helens, OR. According to the original announcement, the Longview location was just one of many that PCF considered “across the Pacific Northwest.”

PCF describes itself as “a joint venture partnership founded by leading North American industrial project developers with top global technology and engineering firms.” These project developers included Scott Charpentier, formerly in charge of OCI’s restarted plant at Beaumont, TX, and Mark Kiddell, whose Pacific Gateway Investments was part of the stalled IFFCO urea plant at Becancour, QB. PCF’s industrial partners include Ferrostaal, which already has stakes in ammonia-urea plants in Trinidad & Tobago, Haldor Topsoe, which makes the ammonia synthesis technology, and Saturn Ferrostaal Gas Chemicals LLC (itself a joint venture between Ferrostaal Industrial Projects and Saturn Project Development LLC), which is a development company established in 2013 “to develop petrochemical industrial plants, primarily on the basis of natural gas in North America (USA, Canada and Mexico).”

In November 2016, Washington State narrowly voted against instituting the first fully functional carbon tax in the US. Had I-732 become legislation, this plant would have ended up paying roughly $25 million per year in carbon taxes, which would have continued to rise at a rate of 3.5% plus inflation every year.[/memberful]

View larger map with all ammonia plants.

ADDRESS: Mint Farm Industrial Park, Longview, WA 98632, United States

WEBSITE: http://pacificcoastfertilizer.com/

REGULATORY SOURCES:

• USGS: Minerals Yearbook, Nitrogen [RECENT / ARCHIVE]
• City of Longview: Pacific Coast Fertilizer SEPA [LINK]

NEWS SOURCES:

• 11/08/2017: The Daily News: Pacific Coast Fertilizer fights ‘misinformation’ about $1B ammonia plant [LINK]
• 11/07/2017: The Daily News: editorial: Pacific Coast Fertilizer [LINK]
• 10/18/2017: The Daily News: Millennium’s permitting costs rise ahead of shoreline hearing [LINK]
• 10/17/2017: The Daily News: City launches environmental review of $1 billion fertilizer plant [LINK]
• 05/12/2017: The Daily News: City Council OKs land sale for $1 billion fertilizer plant [LINK]
• 05/04/2017: The Daily News: Longview’s Mint Farm chosen for $1 billion fertilizer plant [LINK]
• 09/22/2016: Vancouver Business Journal: Joint venture may bring fertilizer plant to Longview [LINK]