Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
5/9/2014
Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) urged the Department of Energy late last week to support a $1 billion loan guarantee being sought for a new nitrogen fertilizer manufacturing plant to be built in his home state. The Cenex Harvest State (CHS) project would convert natural gas into ammonia for use in fertilizer, and according to Hoeven’s office, the plant is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by 592,000 tons per year. Hoeven met with Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz late last week to discuss the project, according to a release from the senator’s office. “This is an innovative project that benefits our farmers, our environment and our economy,” said Hoeven in a release. “The plant will convert natural gas into anhydrous ammonia, providing our farmers with a low-cost, local source of fertilizer while reducing flaring and creating jobs and economic activity. This project has tremendous benefits for our state.”
The new plant would be built in Spiritwood, N.D and would utilize natural gas from the Bakken shale formation. When the project was initially proposed in 2012, costs were estimated at $1.2 billion, but that that total has since grown to more than $2 billion. A construction date is yet to be set for the project, though the announcement of a timeline is anticipated in the near future. Of the meeting between Moniz and Hoeven, a CHS spokesman said, “CHS is open to exploring all options that would allow us to move forward with this project, to build and operate it soundly and safely, to get the economic returns we need and, most important, to deliver value for our owners and customers long term.”
The Advanced Fossil Energy loan guarantee is a product of the DOE Loan Programs Office and is comprised of $8 billion in loan guarantees available to qualifying projects which reduce, avoid or sequester greenhouse gasses. Projects must fall into at least one of four categories; advanced resource development, carbon capture, low-carbon power systems or efficiency improvements. The proposed project would fall into the first category “advanced resource development,” which lists, among many others, projects which use associated gas production to reduce flaring.
