Agrium won't move forward with coal gasification project
(Published March 13, 2008)
fortmilltimes.com
SOLDOTNA, Alaska — Agrium has announced it will not be moving forward with coal gasification for its Nikiski plant on the Kenai Peninsula.
Agrium's Lisa Parker said that escalating equipment and construction costs, the downturn in the economy and increased interest rates made the project more difficult.
A decision on the plant's future will be announced later.
She said Agrium will not be taking the plant down at this time, but decommissioning of it continue.
The remaining employees at the plant will have jobs until June.
After that, Parker said there would probably be only four or five employees finishing Agrium's environmental work at the facility.
Last fall, Agrium announced that it was no longer going to be producing urea and ammonia at the Nikiski facility.
At that time, the staff was reduced to only those working on the potential for coal gasification.
Parker did say that half of the workers who were laid off last fall at Agrium have found other employment.
Information from: Joe Nicks/KSRM-AM, radiokenai.com
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Agrium shelves gasification unit
From Herald News Services
Published: Friday, March 14, 2008
canada.com
Processing - Agrium Inc. said current economic conditions aren't sufficient to proceed with a gasification facility to supply coal-based syngas to its Kenai, Alaska, nitrogen facility. The facility will be mothballed.
Agrium, North America's largest producer of nitrogen fertilizer, said it continues to advance other gasification opportunities, however, and has a nitrogen take-off agreement with Faustina Hydrogen Products LLC in Louisiana. Anticipated startup is 2011.
In Alberta, Agrium is reviewing gasification opportunities of syngas derived from byproducts of bitumen upgrading.
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Agrium mothballs Alaska nitrogen plant
Thu Mar 13, 2008 7:55pm EDT
reuters.com
(Adds remarks from Senator Murkowski)
WINNIPEG, Manitoba, March 13 (Reuters) - Agrium Inc. (AGU.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Thursday it would soon mothball its Kenai nitrogen plant in Alaska after determining that coal gasification was too expensive to supply the facility.
The Calgary, Alberta-based fertilizer company said in September it would shut down the plant because of a shortage of natural gas, but had said it would study whether it could use coal gasification to eventually reopen it.
Agrium said it continues to work on gasification opportunities at other locations in Louisiana and Alberta.
"It is severely disappointing that after all the years spent trying to facilitate the Agrium Blue Skies project, it will not go through," U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, said in a statement.
"It is disheartening to not only the more than 200 former workers of the plant, or to the citizens of the Kenai area, but also to the entire state, that an opportunity to develop 21st century technology that would have converted the state's abundant coal resources into value-added products has slipped away," the statement added. (Reporting by Roberta Rampton in Winnipeg and Yereth Rosen in Anchorage; Editing by Christian Wiessner)
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Agrium to mothball Nikiski plant
by Jason Moore
Thursday, March 13, 2008
ktuu.com
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Agrium announced Thursday that it will not move forward with coal gasification for its Nikiski fertilizer plant.
The announcement could prove to be the final blow to the Kenai Peninsula fertilizer plant, which halted production late last year.
The fertilizer complex will be mothballed.
At one time Agrium employed 300 people on the Kenai Peninsula. That number is now down to 50 and soon will drop to just five people.
Lisa Parker with Agrium said the coal technology was proven to work but is simply too expensive at this time.
"Difficulties come with the slowdown of the economy," Parker said. "The increased costs that we saw for equipment and construction were unfortunately escalating, the cost of the project and investment dollars up."
Parker says half of the workers who were laid off last fall have found other work.
A decision on the plant's future will be announced later.
Contact Jason Moore at jmoore@ktuu.com |
