Nu­trien’s shut­down of its am­mo­nia and urea op­er­a­tions in Trinidad has be­come a turn­ing point in the com­pa­ny’s re­treat from ni­tro­gen pro­duc­tion, as it sells off over­seas as­sets and redi­rects cap­i­tal to­ward potash, ac­cord­ing to re­port­ing pub­lished to­day by the Saska­toon StarPhoenix.

In the ar­ti­cle it notes that in Oc­to­ber, Nu­trien “com­menced a con­trolled shut­down” of its Trinidad op­er­a­tions, which pro­duced am­mo­nia and urea used in ni­tro­gen fer­tilis­er.

The com­pa­ny said the de­ci­sion came “in re­sponse to port ac­cess re­stric­tions im­posed by Trinidad and To­ba­go’s Na­tion­al En­er­gy Cor­po­ra­tion”, along with a lack of re­li­able and eco­nom­ic nat­ur­al gas sup­ply that af­fect­ed fi­nan­cial per­for­mance.