[UPDATED] Nutrien temporarily shutters Pt Lisas ammonia plant

Nutrien Ltd has temporarily shuttered its second-largest ammonia production facility, the PCS 02 plant in Point Lisas, citing economic challenges.

Nutrien Trinidad managing director Ian Walcott confirmed to Newsday that the plant will be shuttered for at least three months at this point. Workers will not be affected, as he added that at this time the company “does not anticipate any impact to Nutrien headcount.”

The company, headquartered in Canada, has five plants in Trinidad, but Walcott said only P2 will shuttered while all the rest operate at normal rate.

In a statement, Nutrien said it made the difficult decision to shut down in response to the current market price of ammonia. PCS 02 is one of four ammonia plants in Trinidad; its fifth plant manufactures urea. PCS 02 has an annual ammonia capacity of 600,000 metric tonnes per year.

“We will continue to monitor market conditions going forward as we assess any further changes in production,” the statement said.

Nutrien’s announcement comes just under two months after another Canadian petrochemical giant, Methanex, announced it would shutter its Titan plant in Point Lisas because of low prices brought on by covid19’s impact, stifling demand. Newsday was also told that Proman, the biggest tenant at the Point Lisas Industrial Estate, also shuttered its M3 methanol plant. The company did not immediately respond to Newsday’s request for comment. Yara Trinidad in December shuttered its wholly-owned ammonia plant, citing low ammonia prices, inability to reach agreement on gas price with the National Gas Company, and because the plant – the oldest on the estate – was inefficient compared to its other plants.

Former energy minister Kevin Ramnarine said Nutrien’s decison was yet another sign that Point Lisas was in trouble and that trouble didn't start with covid19.

“This situation at Point Lisas predates covid19. There are now four plants closed at Point Lisas and Nutrien 02 makes it five plants. What is the cause of this? The pricing of natural gas at Point Lisas since early 2019 coupled with low ammonia prices have squeezed margins particularly for ammonia plants. If companies at Point Lisas cannot make money they will close plants.”

What is needed now, he said, was a way forward to save Point Lisas from becoming the rust belt of the Caribbean.

“As a country, we need to produce more natural gas than we are currently producing and produce it competitively. If we do not change course more plants at Point Lisas will be closed.”

Ammonia is used as a fertiliser and pesticide, as well as industrial cleaning agent. The price of ammonia over the last year has fallen almost 20 per cent, according to agriculture industry website, Agricultural Economic Insights. Using data sourced from the US Department of Agriculture, the site noted that in March 2020, the price of anhydrous ammonia was US$500/ton versus just over US$600/ton in Spring 2020.

This story was originally published with the title "Nutrien temporarily shutters largest Pt Lisas plant" and has been adjusted to include additional details. See original post below.

Nutrien has temporarily shuttered its largest ammonia production facility, the PCS 02 plant in Point Lisas, citing economic challenges.

Nutrien Trinidad managing director Ian Walcott confirmed to Newsday that the plant will be shuttered for at least three months.

Workers will not be affected, he added, saying at this time the company “does not anticipate any impact to Nutrien headcount.”

The company, headquartered in Canada, has five plants in Trinidad, but Walcott said only P2 will be shuttered while all the rest operate at full rate.