Nutrien Announces Indefinite Closure of Trinidad Nitrogen Facility
Key Facts
Nutrien said on October 5, 2026, that it would indefinitely close nitrogen operations at its Point Lisas facility in Trinidad, a decision reflecting continued constraints on natural gas supplies and uncertainty around them. The company said the facility had already entered a controlled operational shutdown on October 23, 2025. It attributed the new decision to "ongoing natural gas constraints and uncertainty." The announcement therefore distinguishes between the start of the operational halt nearly a year earlier and the formalization of the indefinite closure in October 2026. That puts Nutrien's Trinidad facility outside the production plans the company announced for this year.
Nutrien said the facility's closure would not affect its 2026 nitrogen sales guidance. It said its estimates had already assumed no production from its Trinidad operations. That means the decision does not change the production assumption underpinning the annual guidance, according to the company's statement. The facility had been operationally shut since October 2025, before the indefinite closure was announced in the same month of 2026. The available excerpt did not provide a new nitrogen sales figure or a financial estimate of the decision's impact.
Nutrien's decision comes amid broader pressures in fertilizer markets in early 2026, according to the World Bank. Its fertilizer price index rose more than 12% in the first quarter from the previous quarter, with prices reaching their highest level since 2022 in March. The bank attributed much of the index's rise to the impact of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz on fertilizer and input exports. It said increases were sharper for urea than for other types of fertilizer. This backdrop links supply disruptions to fertilizer price movements without specifying a separate price effect from the closure of the Trinidad facility.
Urea, a nitrogen fertilizer, averaged $725 per metric ton in March 2026, up about 55% from February. The World Bank said this was the highest level since April 2022. It noted that Iran halted ammonia production because of the conflict, while Qatar suspended production of urea, ammonia and sulfur after its production facilities were damaged. These developments carry weight in the export market: in 2024, the Middle East accounted for more than 15% of global ammonia exports and about a quarter of urea exports. Supply disruptions, according to the bank, are not limited to gas in Trinidad; they have also affected production and shipping in the Middle East.
At the company level, Nutrien said it plans to increase production volumes from its North American assets through reliability improvements and low-cost debottlenecking projects. The statement gave no timeline or target volume for the increases. Data from the U.S. Geological Survey indicate that U.S. ammonia production capacity is expected to rise by about 1.4 million tons a year over the five years following its report, including low-carbon ammonia projects. In the agency's historical price data, the average ammonia price on the U.S. Gulf Coast was $440 per short ton in 2024, compared with $470 in 2023 and $1,070 in 2022. It also estimated Trinidad and Tobago's ammonia production at 3,200,000 metric tons in 2024, compared with 3,220,000 tons in 2023.
On the market outlook, the World Bank said fertilizer markets are expected to remain tight through most of 2026, before urea prices fall about 25% in 2027 if Middle Eastern exports recover and natural gas prices moderate. That path remains conditional on the factors cited by the bank, rather than any announced change in the status of Nutrien's facility. The company had set October 15, 2026, as the date for releasing its third-quarter results and holding an investor call. It also said North American production growth would depend on reliability improvements and low-cost debottlenecking projects. The closure statement did not specify a date for the resumption of Point Lisas operations.