LSB shuts US ammonia plant in Oklahoma after fire

HOUSTON (ICIS)–LSB Industries shut down its ammonia plant in Pryor, Oklahoma, after a minor fire, it said on Thursday.

It was taken out of service on 23 September.

The downtime will be used to repair damage to some of the plant’s electrical controls, wiring and piping.

LSB stated that no employees were injured, there was no damage to the reformer or to other major pieces of equipment, and there was no release of ammonia. It expects the repairs to be completed and ammonia production to resume by the end of October.

The company plans to meet customer commitments for pre-sales of products by either shipping from other facilities or by purchasing them from third parties. As a result, the ammonia plant downtime will not result in reductions of urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) or ammonia sales volumes.

Management expects that the impact resulting from the repair expenses, the excess cost of purchasing UAN versus producing it, and the reduced absorption of fixed costs will be approximately $1.5m-$2m for the third quarter and $2.5m-$2.75m for the fourth quarter.

LSB will provide an update on the progress of the repairs and the impacts of the downtime on financial results when the company reports third quarter results in late October.

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