Nutrien fully shuts down Point Lisas operations after year-long idling

Ke­jan Haynes

Af­ter al­most a year of idling its Point Lisas ni­tro­gen plant, Nu­trien is shut­ting down its Trinidad op­er­a­tions, with staff be­ing in­formed to­day that re­trench­ment is about to be­gin.

The Cana­di­an fer­tilis­er gi­ant an­nounced Mon­day that it will in­def­i­nite­ly shut down its Trinidad Ni­tro­gen op­er­a­tions fol­low­ing a re­view of its strate­gic op­tions, cit­ing on­go­ing nat­ur­al gas con­straints and un­cer­tain­ty.

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands that meet­ings are be­ing held with staff to­day to in­form them of the im­pend­ing re­trench­ment.

The com­pa­ny said the de­ci­sion was the best op­tion to im­prove free cash flow and re­turns on in­vest­ed cap­i­tal.

Nu­trien had al­ready im­ple­ment­ed a con­trolled shut­down of the Point Lisas fa­cil­i­ty on Oc­to­ber 23, 2025, af­ter cit­ing re­stric­tions on ac­cess to port fa­cil­i­ties and a lack of re­li­able and eco­nom­ic nat­ur­al gas sup­plies.

The shut­down was ini­tial­ly de­scribed as tem­po­rary, with Nu­trien say­ing it would con­tin­ue en­gag­ing with stake­hold­ers and as­sess op­tions for its Trinidad op­er­a­tions.

About 350 con­tract work­ers were sent home with­in days of the shut­down, while Nu­trien’s per­ma­nent em­ploy­ees re­mained on the job.

By Jan­u­ary, how­ev­er, the sit­u­a­tion had de­te­ri­o­rat­ed fur­ther. NGC moved to iso­late the gas me­ters serv­ing Nu­trien’s Point Lisas fa­cil­i­ty af­ter the com­pa­ny’s gas sup­ply arrange­ment ex­pired on Jan­u­ary 1, ef­fec­tive­ly cut­ting off its gas sup­ply and ac­cess to port op­er­a­tions. At the time, Guardian Me­dia re­port­ed that about 400 per­ma­nent em­ploy­ees and 100 con­trac­tors re­mained at­tached to the op­er­a­tion.

Nu­trien sub­se­quent­ly con­tin­ued its strate­gic re­view, in­clud­ing con­sid­er­a­tion of a pos­si­ble sale of the fa­cil­i­ty. The com­pa­ny had said there was no pre­de­ter­mined out­come and that all op­tions re­mained un­der con­sid­er­a­tion.

Now, al­most a year af­ter pro­duc­tion stopped, Nu­trien says the Trinidad op­er­a­tion will be shut down in­def­i­nite­ly.

“We great­ly ap­pre­ci­ate the con­tri­bu­tions and ded­i­ca­tion of our Trinidad team and are com­mit­ted to man­ag­ing the tran­si­tion re­spon­si­bly and safe­ly,” said Dean Perkins, Nu­trien’s se­nior vice-pres­i­dent, Up­stream, Ni­tro­gen and Pro­pri­etary Prod­uct Op­er­a­tions in a me­dia re­lease.

Nu­trien said the de­ci­sion will have no im­pact on its 2026 ni­tro­gen sales vol­ume guid­ance be­cause its fore­cast had al­ready as­sumed no pro­duc­tion from Trinidad.

The com­pa­ny said it re­mains well po­si­tioned to meet cus­tomer de­mand and grow ni­tro­gen vol­umes through its North Amer­i­can ni­tro­gen op­er­a­tions.

Guardian Me­dia has reached out to the Gov­ern­ment for a re­sponse to Nu­trien’s de­ci­sion and the im­pend­ing re­trench­ment of staff.