Agrium signs feedstock deal

Agrium has signed a memorandum of understanding with Northern Lights Partnership that may lead to "a new, stable, long-term, low-cost source of raw materials" for the firm's Redwater, Alberta, fertilizer operations. NLP plans to build a bitumen upgrader and gasification facility adjacent to the Agrium facility that would supply hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and sulfur when it opens in 2010. Agrium would use the hydrogen to replace natural gas as the feedstock for its nitrogen fertilizers; sulfur would be used to make phosphate fertilizers and ammonium sulfate.