Category: Latin America

Cartagena Refinery has entered the solid sulphur market, diversifying its petrochemical portfolio, according to a company statement on 21 May. The first shipment of 260 tonnes has already been dispatched to the domestic market. This new venture is enabled by a recently commissioned pelletising plant that converts liquid sulphur into solid pellets, with a production capacity of 1,000 t/d. The refinery is targeting Colombia’s fertilizer, chemical, and mining industries, and is also planning to export to international markets, including Brazil, Peru, and countries in Africa.

Members of the lower house in Chile’s Congress have unanimously approved creation of a special investigative commission to examine a series of alleged irregularities at state-owned copper producer Codelco. The issues are: overestimation of production by almost 27,000 t last year; a multimillion-dollar renovation of the company’s headquarters in Santiago; and, maybe, the collapse of a chimney at Potrerillos copper smelter in the Atacama region of northern Chile. The structural failure has forced a production suspension.

Petrobras PBR has said that it plans to restart construction of the long-delayed UFN-III fertilizer plant in Três Lagoas, Mato Grosso do Sul, with work at the site expected to resume by September. UFN-III, with a planned capacity of 2,200 t/d of ammonia and 3,600 t/d of urea, was partially completed in the 2010s, but the site has been inactive and unfinished since 2015. Petrobras now intends to complete the project with an estimated investment of $1 billion, targeting commercial operations by 2029. The site was chosen as it was strategically positioned near several of Brazil’s largest agribusiness regions, including Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Goiás, Paraná and São Paulo.

Methanex says that it has been unable to agree to a new natural gas contract for its 860,000 t/a Titan methanol plant in Trinidad and Tobago, and, as a result, will begin the process of indefinitely idling the facility. Titan’s existing natural gas contract expires in the third quarter of 2026. Methanex says that it will undertake a preservation process at the Titan plant to provide options for a future restart should conditions materially improve. The neighbouring 1/7 million t/a Atlas methanol plant, a joint venture in which Methanex holds a 63.1% economic interest, remains indefinitely idled in a preserved state.

Brazil Potash has awarded a second Front End Engineering Design (FEED) contract for mine shafts and underground development at its Autazes potash project in Amazonas State, Brazil, to WSP UK Ltd., with Redpath Deilmann Mining Inc. as subconsultants.

Bifox Ltd has acquired an initial 16.667% stake in Fosfatos del Pacífico S.A. (Fospac) from Fossal S.A.A. for $10 million, with a call option to purchase the remaining 83.333% for $50 million.

Germany's thyssenkrupp Uhde has signed pre‑FEED contracts with Fuella AS, a Bergen‑based developer and operator of green hydrogen and green ammonia projects founded in 2020, for two 400,000 tpa green ammonia plants at the ports of Pecém and Açu in Brazil.

ATOME has appointed Sungrow Hydrogen as electrolyser supplier for its 260,000 t/y low‑carbon Calcium Ammonium Nitrate (CAN) project at Villeta, Paraguay.

Guyana has attracted a mix of Chinese, US, Indian, European and local engineering groups to bid for the Guyana Ammonia and Urea Plant (GAUP), a 300,000 t/y fertilizer project planned at Wales alongside the country’s gas‑to‑energy complex.

Metso has signed a major agreement with Southern Peru Copper Corporation, one of the largest copper producers in the world, for the supply of copper solvent extraction and electrowinning (SX/EW) technology to the company’s Tia Maria project in Cocachacra, Peru. The new plant will produce 120,000 tons of high-purity copper cathodes per year.