In December 2016, Louisiana DEQ issued final air permits for the brownfield project at Pollock, LA, and disclosed significant new details about TopChem’s proposed 500,000 ton per year ammonia plant.
The air permit documents, including LDEQ’s Statement of Basis and a transcript from the Public Hearing, are available to download from the LDEQ website (search AI #3133).
Scope of Construction
Although TopChem’s ammonia plant had been promoted as a “retrofit” (converting a biodiesel plant that used to be an ammonia plant back to being an ammonia plant), it might more properly be described as a new build:
The Ammonia Production Plant will be new construction and employ state-of-the-art technology to ensure the process is as efficient as possible …
The only existing equipment that will be utilized are the ammonia storage tank and the cooling tower. Both structures will be inspected and repaired if necessary prior to the commencement of operations.”
LDEQ, TopChem Pollock: Title V and PSD permit, Statement of Basis, 12/20/2016
According to the original 2015 announcement, TopChem was “negotiating with European and Asian companies to purchase and move ammonia plant components that will be coupled with existing plant infrastructure in Pollock to create the new ammonia facility.”
Obviously, the project benefits from selecting a brownfield site, already zoned for industrial use and with existing infrastructure, including connections to natural gas, power, and water. Perhaps best of all, this site is connected to an ammonia pipeline, which will distribute TopChem’s product to the Midwest at low cost.
Construction Schedule
TopChem has pushed the schedule back by six months, so far. The original plan was for construction to begin in Q2 2016, for start-up in Q3 2018. Now however, they are working to a shorter, 20-month construction timeframe:
We hope to begin construction in the second quarter of next year [2017] with operation beginning the second quarter of 2019.
Arunas Laurinaitis, CEO TopChem, LDEQ Public Hearing Transcript, 12/06/2016
I should note that I have no information about the project’s financing, nor about any EPC contractor. Without those in place, there’s no start to construction.
Financing
I was intrigued, however, by some of the supportive comments at the Public Hearing, which implied that TopChem would be financed fully with equity, not debt. If this is true and the investment funds are ready to go, there’s no reason this project should be further delayed. Experience teaches me, however, that project finance isn’t this simple.
I’m an economic developer by trade. And I met Mr. Arunas Laurinaitis and Mr. Raimondas Petreikis probably well over a year ago when this project was just an idea. And I’ve come to know these people when there’s no cameras going, when there’s no microphones. And I can tell you that their first concern always was, will [we] be accepted into the community[? W]e want to [be] part of the community. On their own they requested that they meet at the courthouse and give a presentation about their project, because they wanted their community to know what was going on. And I really wasn’t going to talk tonight, but …
And by the way, just for your information, and I don’t know if I have permission to say this, but I’ve got the microphone, that $270 million is not being borrowed, it’s coming out [of] their pocket, it’s their money that they’re spending here … and they’re not spending $270 million here to not be successful.”
LDEQ Public Hearing Transcript, pp30-31, 12/06/2016
As always, you can find everything I know about TopChem’s brownfield plant in my Research Note for Pollock, LA.