Money Makers

Garry Boulard, Contributing Writer//February 26, 2014//
Top Construction Projects: 5. Dyno Nobel ammonia plant

Garry Boulard, Contributing Writer//February 26, 2014//
More than 3,000 pilings have so far been driven to lay the groundwork for the construction of the new $850 million Dyno Nobel manufacturing plant in Waggaman.

Heading into February, plant manager Chris Morgan estimated the piling work was 60 percent complete.
“Given the size and weight of the structure we’re going to be putting up, we want to make sure that we have a good foundation,” Morgan said.
Actual construction of the plant, which is being built inside Cornerstone Chemical Co.’s 800-acre complex near the Jefferson/St. Charles parish line, will most likely begin this summer at the earliest.
“We are looking at the third quarter of 2016,” Daniel McActree, president of the Salt Lake City-based Dyno Nobel, said when asked when the facility will be completed.
Although the company currently has more than 30 operating plants internationally, the Waggaman facility will be the first in recent years that strictly produces ammonia for Dyno Nobel.
“We haven’t built one in probably 10 years or more. We have bought them through acquisitions,” McActree said. “So in that sense, this is a one-time, unique event.”
Dyno Nobel, a wholly owned subsidiary of Incitec Pivot Ltd., was founded by Alfred Nobel, who in the late 1860s invented dynamite and the detonator. His name today is more familiar as the inspiration for the Nobel Peace Prize, which was created after his death as a part of his will.
The announcement last spring that Dyno Nobel, which currently has operations in nine countries, including the U.S., was coming to Jefferson Parish followed roughly two years of talks between state and parish leaders and the explosives maker.
Those talks were productive, leading to tax incentives via the state’s Quality Jobs program and industrial tax exemption. In return, Dyna Nobel officials said the new plant will generate up to $45 million in tax revenue for Jefferson Parish in the next two decades, while also creating some 65 jobs with an average salary of $55,700.
The company has said the Waggaman facility upon completion will be capable of producing 800,000 metric tons of ammonia on an annual basis.
Dyno Nobel committed to building a state-of-the-art, low-pollution could become a model for future ammonia plant construction around the world also captured the attention of local officials. To that end, the company has entered into a $600 million contract with Houston-based KBR Inc., which provides engineering, procurement and construction services and is known as an industry leader in providing low-energy consumption technology for plant operations.
“Construction is going to be complicated” because of that technology, Morgan said.
“We are going to have so many different types of crafts that have to work together in the same area,” he added. “So we will have the structural and then we get into the piping and all of the electrical and finally we get into the computer controls —it’s going to be a very technical operation.”
Project description: Construction of new ammonia plant
Project cost: $850 million
Start date: Spring 2014
Expected completion date: Summer/fall 2016
Owner/developer: Dyno Nobel, subsidiary of Incitec Pivot Ltd.
Project manager: KBR Inc., Dyno Nobel
Construction team: KBR Inc., Dyno Nobel
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