Nutrien announces indefinite shutdown of its ammonia and urea operations in Trinidad

Canadian fertilizer major Nutrien today (5 October) announced an indefinite shutdown of its Trinidad Nitrogen operations at Point Lisas following an “extensive review of strategic alternatives and engagement with relevant stakeholders”.

The Canadian major implemented a controlled shutdown of the facility last October, but today said the four ammonia plants and one urea unit will remain silent “due to ongoing natural gas constraints and uncertainty”.

Such a move has been “determined to be the optimal path to enhance free cash flow and return on invested capital”, Nutrien explained, adding the shutdown followed a row with local energy chiefs over “port access restrictions and a lack of reliable and economic natural gas supply”.

“We greatly appreciate the contributions and dedication of our Trinidad team and are committed to managing the transition responsibly and safely,” commented Nutrien’s SVP, Upstream, Nitrogen and Proprietary Product Operations, Dean Perkins.

“There will be no impact to Nutrien’s 2026 nitrogen sales volume guidance as the company assumed no production from its Trinidad Nitrogen operations,” the group added.

“Nutrien remains well positioned to meet customer demand for nitrogen and grow volumes from its North American nitrogen assets through reliability improvements and low-cost debottleneck projects.”

Despite the loss of output from its Caribbean operations, Nutrien continues to ship ammonia to term customers in Chile and the USA each month, with the group sourcing material from its own plants, as well as from other suppliers under offtake.

Of note, data from Trinidad's Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries (MEEI) shows Nutrien's plants produced 1.27m. tonnes of ammonia in 2024, with just over 1m. tonnes shipped overseas. 

MEEI has not yet published output and export data for 2025, but last month said ammonia production in January-May 2026 came to nearly 1.36m. tonnes, versus 1.73m. tonnes in the same period of 2024.

Since Nutrien idled its operations, the island's other ammonia units have enjoyed far better feedstock supply, enabling them to run at relatively high rates, thus reducing the impact of Nutrien's shutdown on the merchant market.

As recently reported, the two Tringen plants – which provide material to Yara – produced 425,000t between them in January-May 2026, while units operated by Point Lisas Nitrogen Limited (PLNL), N2000 and AUM-NH3 generated around 229,000t, 254,000t and 265,000t, respectively.

Caribbean Nitrogen Company (CNC) churned out slightly above 183,000t and while the AUM-NH3 facility produced the most ammonia, only 17,000t was shipped abroad, all in April.