11 April 2018
DETAILS
Yara International ASA and BASF today celebrated
the opening of a new world-scale ammonia plant
in Freeport, Texas, USA.
The $600-million, state-of-the-art facility
uses a cost-efficient and sustainable production process,
based on by-product hydrogen instead of natural gas.
Yara Freeport LLC is owned
* 68 percent by Yara and
* 32 percent by BASF.
The plant, located at BASF’s site in Freeport,
has a capacity of 750,000 metric tons of ammonia per year.
Each party will off-take ammonia
according to their ownership share.
Conventional ammonia plants use natural gas
to produce the hydrogen needed
during ammonia production.
Yara Freeport’s hydrogen-based technology
allows the plant to forego this initial production step,
leading to lower capital expenditure and maintenance costs.
By using hydrogen, which originates
from the production processes
of various petrochemical plants nearby,
Yara Freeport safeguards resources
and mitigates environmental impact.
A long-term supply agreement
for hydrogen and nitrogen
with industrial gases company Praxair Inc.
links feedstock cost to
the advantageous natural gas prices
on the U.S. Gulf coast.
BASF will use its share of ammonia off-take
to produce polyamide 6,
which is commonly used in the production of carpet fibers,
packaging and casings for the wire and cable markets.
Polyamide 6 for injection molding
is used in high-performance engineering plastics
for automotive applications.
Yara will market its share of ammonia
to industrial customers and the agricultural sector
in North America.
To support the new plant,
Yara built an ammonia storage facility at Port Freeport.
BASF upgraded its existing terminal and pipeline assets.
Svein Tore Holsether
Yara President and CEO
“Together with our partners at BASF, we built
a world-scale ammonia plant
that not only raises the bar in terms of safety,
efficiency and quality but also applies
the principles of industrial symbiosis
by using a by-product
as feedstock for ammonia production,”
“Yara Freeport strengthens our leading position
in the global ammonia market
and expands our production footprint in North America.”
Wayne T. Smith,
Member of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF SE
and Chairman and CEO, BASF Corporation
“This joint venture with Yara not only strengthens
our production Verbund at the Freeport site,
it demonstrates BASF’s commitment
to investing in North America,”
“The new plant allows us
to take advantage of world-scale production economics
and attractive raw material costs
to strengthen the competitiveness
of our customer value chain in the region.”
Media Inquiries:
Yara Contact:
Thor Giæver,
Investor Relations
Mobile: (+47) 48 07 53 56
E-mail: thor.giaver@yara.com
Kristin Nordal,
Corporate Communications
Mobile: (+47) 900 15 550
Email: kristin.nordal@yara.com
BASF Contact:
Donna Jakubowski
Tel.: (973) 245-6260
Email: donna.jakubowski@basf.com
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