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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
$1-billion Midwest fertilizer plant eyed
Could supply growers in northern U.S. states
FARGO, N.D. -- Corn growers and fertilizer-industry officials are considering building a $1-billion plant in the upper Midwest that could produce enough nitrogen fertilizer to feed about 12 per cent of the corn and wheat acres in the Dakotas and Minnesota.
Organizers have completed a feasibility study and are evaluating potential sites in the three states, according to the North Dakota Corn Growers Association. They also are doing business planning and will be setting up a structure that would enable farmers to invest, executive director Tom Lilja told the Forum newspaper (http://bit.ly/MAEyNX ).
A plant likely would be funded by farmers and private interests. Other options include investments from Canadian producers and farmers outside the tristate area.
Officials began studying the project last year with help from the Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics at North Dakota State University. Planners originally focused on a smaller plant but the feasibility study found the ideal size economically would be a $1-billion facility, Lilja said.
The plant could help local farmers secure fertilizer without having to rely on imports, and also use natural gas that is burned off as a byproduct of oil production in western North Dakota, Lilja said. About one-third of the natural gas produced in the oilpatch is flared off because there isn't enough pipeline capacity to move it to market. Natural gas is a key component of nitrogen fertilizer.
"It solves a problem for the energy industry, and it solves a problem for the agricultural industry," Lilja said.
-- The Associated Press
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 6, 2012 B11
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