Tag: 2017

Rock Springs, WY — Simplot

January 13, 2014

UPDATED: 01/11/2018 — see Change Log

OWNER: Simplot Phosphates (J.R. Simplot)
PROJECT: Brownfield ammonia plant

SUMMARY STATUS: Operational
Simplot began building its new ammonia plant, adjacent to its existing phosphate fertilizer plant, in October 2014. The project was initially scheduled to be complete in Q3 2016, but delays pushed this back. The new plant was mechanically complete in March 2017 and became fully operational in September 2017. Simplot's investment is "one of the largest in company history," and makes it self-sufficient for ammonia.

Kemper County, MS — Southern Company

by Trevor Brown

January 13, 2014

UPDATED: 01/23/2018 — see Change Log

OWNER: Mississippi Power Company (Southern Company)
PROJECT: Greenfield power plant, ammonia byproduct

SUMMARY STATUS: Operational / Abandoned
The Kemper County Energy Facility, a 582 MW power plant, was one of the US DOE's flagship "clean coal" projects. It would have produced ammonia as a byproduct of its coal-to-syngas process. The plant has been producing power from natural gas since August 2014, but experienced profound delays and budget overruns with the coal portion, which now appears to have been abandoned, with layoffs at the adjacent coal mine.

Borger, TX — Nutrien

by Trevor Brown

November 1, 2013

UPDATED: 02/06/2018 — see Change Log

OWNER: Nutrien
PROJECT: Ammonia-Urea Plant, expansion & urea brownfield

SUMMARY STATUS: Ammonia expansion Cancelled, Urea brownfield Operational
In April 2017, Agrium "successfully commissioned" its brownfield urea plant at Borger, which had been under construction since March 2014, more than a year behind schedule and 10% over budget. An expected debottleneck of the ammonia line was cancelled in 2015. In January 2018, Nutrien was formed through a "merger of equals" between Agrium and PotashCorp that was originally announced in September 2016.

Enid, OK — Koch Industries

by Trevor Brown

November 1, 2013

Ammonia plant: Enid, OK - Koch Industries

UPDATED: 12/10/2017 — see Change Log

OWNER: Koch Fertilizer Enid LLC (Koch Industries Inc)
PROJECT: Nitrogen fertilizer plant, ammonia expansion, urea brownfield

SUMMARY STATUS: Construction Phase
Koch is expanding its Enid plant, the "single largest project investment in company history," increasing capacity on both ammonia lines, debottlenecking the existing urea plant, and building a new urea plant. The ground-breaking took place in October 2014; the project is slightly behind schedule, but construction was expected to be complete in 2017.

Wever, IA — OCI

by Trevor Brown

November 1, 2013

UPDATED: 11/14/2017 — see Change Log.

OWNER: Iowa Fertilizer Company (OCI NV / Orascom)
PROJECT: Greenfield nitrogen fertilizer plant

SUMMARY STATUS: Operational
OCI announced the start-up of the ammonia plant in April 2017 but, while the site is mechanically complete and all the downstream plants are capable of production above nameplate capacity, the ammonia plant had trouble ramping up and OCI only acknowledged "Provisional Acceptance" of the project in mid-October. Despite OCI's first-mover advantage, the Wever plant is now two years delayed and more than a billion dollars over budget. OCI wanted to do mergers and acquisitions but didn't have much success: it failed to merge with CF Industries in 2016 and failed to buy out its subsidiary, OCI Partners, in 2017.