Keystone Agricultural Producers has decided to support a $1 billion farmer-owned fertilizer plant in North Dakota.
KAP announced yesterday it will have a seat on the board of directors for a proposed nitrogen fertilizer plant that plans to use flare gas from the Bakken oil deposit in North Dakota.
“Manitoba farmers are supporting this world-class project because they are frustrated with the high price of fertilizer,” said KAP president Doug Chorney in a statement. “This is an opportunity for us to impact the regional fertilizer supply and marketing dynamics.”
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North Dakota growers, along with producer associations from South Dakota and Minnesota, have formed a steering committee to study the possibility of a farmer-owned fertilizer plant in the region.
Earlier this month, the North Dakota Corn Growers Association announced that a feasibility study on the fertilizer plant had been completed.
If constructed, the plant could supply the needs of 12 percent of the corn and wheat acreage in the three states, according to the North Dakota Department of Commerce website.
While most fertilizer plants in North America use foreign natural gas supplies to produce nitrogen fertilizer, the proposed plant would use natural gas flared off from North Dakota’s booming oil patch, said Don Pottinger, a fertilizer industry expert from Minnesota and a supporter of the project.
“We will create a stable fertilizer supply that is not dependent on off-shore natural gas supplies and freight costs,” Pottinger noted in a KAP release.
KAP had to pay for its seat on the project’s board, but the farm lobby group did not release the cost of the seat.
