Woodside mulls options for recently-acquired Texan ammonia plant, sale not ruled out

Almost five months to the day since it concluded the purchase of the Beaumont New Ammonia (BNA) project in Texas, Australia’s Woodside Energy on Tuesday announced a "strategic review" of the 1.1m. tonne/year facility that could result in its sale.

During a results webcast today, CEO Liz Westcott, said: “[BNA] was acquired in a global environment with line of sight to a developing market for lower-carbon ammonia, including international regulatory frameworks required to support that market.

“Significant changes in the global environment over the past 12 months have changed this underlying premise.

“Now that the asset has moved into the operating phase, it is the optimal time to review its place in our global portfolio. We will explore all options to determine the best value for Woodside.”

In September 2024, Woodside and OCI Global agreed a $2.35 billion deal for the world-scale plant, with first production occurring in late 2025.

Despite running at decent rates since, the plant has yet to produce any low-carbon (blue) material due to delays at third parties.

According to Woodside, BNA operated at an average 69% capacity in Q2 due to feedstock constraints arising from construction delays at third party suppliers, with said constraints still “expected to continue into 2027”.

The plant achieved a reliability rate of 87.6% in the first six months of the year, including the start-up and commissioning period, having made 279,000t of material between January and June.

“Lower-carbon ammonia production remains targeted for 2027, subject to commissioning of Linde’s low-carbon hydrogen facilities and startup of ExxonMobil’s CCS infrastructure, including approval of the relevant CCS permitting process,” it added in a results announcement today.

Last month, Woodside revealed sales had been a “combination of spot and term cargoes” and that 75% of the Q2 output of 166,000t had been shipped to international markets.

In addition to the strategic review of BNA, Woodside has also cancelled plans to invest $5 billion in new energy or low-carbon assets by the end of the decade.

Despite that news, its CEO said the group is “going to continue to explore new energy opportunities, including hydrogen, ammonia and CCS".

“As we develop our portfolio, we have to be very driven by where customers are looking and where the commercial markets are developing,” Ms Westcott added.

New capacity in the US Gulf helps offset loss of Trinidad tonnes

Of note, BNA came online just a few weeks after the 1.3m. tonne/year Gulf Coast Ammonia (GCA) plant finally debuted at Port of Texas City.

In a surprise move, Norwegian major Yara last month unveiled plans for the $1.3 billion acquisition for that Texas City unit, which remains in its commissioning phase.

The plant, which was due to launch several years ago before lengthy delays, “is anticipated to continue ramping up toward full production and stable operations by end of 2026, with production targeted at above nameplate capacity”, Yara said on 2 July.

Between them, the two units have become a welcome source of merchant material by major market players, with the plants also helping cushion the impact of the indefinite shutdown of Nutrien's four ammonia lines in Trinidad that has removed about 1m. tonnes/year of exports from the Americas.

The Canadian major idled those plants, along with a urea unit, in late October last year amid a row over port access fees and natgas supply reliability.  The future of the group's Point Lisas nitrogen assets remains up in the air.

Official data shows those plants made 1.2m. tonnes of ammonia in 2024, of which 85% was exported. No such statistics for 2025 have yet been published, but Trinidadian output in Q1 2026 was almost 814,000t versus nearly 1.05m. tonnes in the same period of 2024.

Market players note that while Nutrien's plants have been quiet for 10 months, other producers on the island have benefitted from additional feedstock allocations in a move that has allowed them to boost production capacity at their respective export-focused operations.