Tag: natural gas

High natural gas prices are pushing European fertiliser producers to halt or curtail production, mirroring what seen in 2022 at the start of the Ukraine war.

India's GAIL (India) Limited and Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers Limited (RCF) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to jointly establish a gas-based urea plant in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, the state-owned gas transporter said in a stock-exchange filing on 29 July.

Trinidad and Tobago's ammonia, urea and urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) exports to the United States will attract 0% duty under a set of product exemptions published alongside the final action in the US Trade Representative's Section 301 forced-labour investigation.

Canada’s new National Food Security Strategy makes fertilizer access, approvals and supply security a core part of federal efforts to lower food costs and cut exposure to global shocks.

Brussels has put Europe’s gas‑exposed fertilizer industry at the centre of its new Fertilizer Action Plan, warning that high energy costs and plant closures threaten the region’s nitrogen capacity and long‑term food security.

Sour gas production is costly because hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide require extensive sweetening, sulphur recovery, safety, and compliance infrastructure, with sulphur sales helping offset but rarely eliminating those added costs.

SABIC Agri-Nutrients Company says that it has received approval from the Saudi Ministry of Energy to allocate feedstock required for the construction of its seventh plant in Jubail Industrial City. The new facility will produce approximately 1.2 million t/a of ammonia and 2.6 million t/a of urea, increasing the company’s urea production capacity from 4.8 million t/a to 7.4 million t/a; a 54% increase. This is expected to strengthen its position as one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of nitrogen-based nutrients, in line with its 2040 growth strategy.

On 6 May, Romanian gas producer Romgaz said it had agreed key terms to take over the Azomureș fertiliser plant, weeks after the Ameropa‑owned producer started a 45‑day restructuring process and warned it could mothball the site without a deal.

Argentina's Pampa Energía is advancing work on a proposed 2 million t/y urea plant but has not yet taken a final investment decision, the company said in its recent investor briefings.

In just its first two months, 2026 had already managed to be a rollercoaster of a year, but at the start of March, the onset of hostilities against Iran by the US and Israel has managed to deliver another huge shock to markets, particularly commodities. Iran’s strategy of widening the conflict to neighbouring states, including by attacking Qatar’s massive LNG facility at Ras Laffan, effectively shutting it down, has sent the LNG market into chaos, and attacks on several tankers and other ships have paralysed maritime insurance markets and by default achieved the long-feared closure of the Straits of Hormuz.