The fertilizer industry competes for natural gas in the US.
Low gas costs may not be enough to spur large fertilizer expansion
Knoxville, Tennessee (Platts)
While US natural gas prices below $3/MMBtu seem enough to entice any industrial user to expand their use of the fuel, for US fertilizer manufacturers the equation is not quite that simple.
Analysts said recently that a host of obstacles, such as permitting and long-term financial risk, would make construction of a new site untenable, but that hasn’t stopped the industry from resuscitating mothballed facilities or mulling expansions.
Natural gas typically represents 70% to 90% of the production cost for anhydrous ammonia — the key…