Trinidad ammonia exports shrink in 2018

Ammonia exports from Trinidad and Tobago dipped by 5pc year-over-year on several disruptions to production and late-year gas curtailments throughout 2018 that limited shipments from the island.

Exports slipped to 4.34mn t in 2018 — the lowest level since 2014 — on crimped production stemming from various outages throughout the year, according to the island's ministry of energy and energy industries. Annual production fell by 4pc from 2017 to 4.85mn t.

Producer CNC endured a nine-week outage at its 650,000 t/yr facility after its gas supply with state-owned NGC ended in January 2018. The extended outage resulted in about 108,000t of lost production, which restricted combined exports in February-April by 40pc from the same period in 2017.

Extended turnarounds at Yara's Tringen II and Tringen I facilities also curbed exports during the second and third quarters. Combined exports from Tringen I dipped by 6pc during the second and third quarters year-over-year to 215,714t. Exports from Tringen II fell by 49pc during the same period to 123,116t.

Ammonia exports in December declined by 7pc to 374,743t on reduced shipments from Yara.

Yara did not export ammonia from its 285,000 t/yr Yara Trinidad Limited facility in December, while combined exports from Tringen I and Tringen II lowered by 5pc year-over-year to 60,815t. All three of Yara's units exported a combined total of 86,318t in December 2017.

Combined exports from Nutrien's four units declined by 8pc from the prior year to 161,408t in December.

Ammonia exports from Trinidad ’000t