Agrium restarts Kenai nitrogen plant

Agrium Inc. is restarting its Kenai, Alaska nitrogen fertilizer plant after a shutdown due to a cold snap that boosted home heating demand and tightened natural gas supplies in the Cook Inlet region, the company said in its quarterly earnings conference Feb. 2.

“Kenai is in the process of restarting,” said Ron A. Wilkinson, Agrium vice president of wholesale. “We’ve got just enough gas cobbled together to do that.”

Agrium shut down one plant at the Nikiski complex Jan. 23 and another Jan. 25, after scraping by for a couple of weeks on a marginally sufficient supply of gas for production.

The company said the shutdown was something it had planned for.

“We anticipate a little bit of cold in Alaska,” Wilkinson said.

Agrium has contracts in place with suppliers for 2006 operations, but the contracts give priority to utilities when demand for gas rises. Delivery of gas to the company’s plant dropped to less than half of the 80 million cubic feet per day needed for production. Wilkinson said the company expects anticipated warmer temperatures to allow Nikiski plant operations to continue as normal for the rest of the heating season.

—Steve Sutherlin