Restart of Ammonia Plant in Lithuania Lifts Gas Demand by 30%

Lithuania’s Achema restarted its second ammonia unit at the Jonava site last week, which lifted the country’s gas consumption by more than 30% since the restart, the country’s energy agency said, according to Argusmedia.

• The unit has a gas consumption capacity of 42GWh according to previous urgent market message postings.
• Lithuanian demand had already increased sharply in previous weeks — it was running at 49 GWh/d on 21 September-2 October, up from 35 GWh/d on 1-20 September, according to TSO Amber Grid. This might reflect the end of maintenance at Achema's other Jonava ammonia unit earlier in the month.
• Achema had previously planned to ramp up production in June. The facility accounted for 55% of the country’s gas production in March 2018 until December 2021.
• This is the second ammonia producer in the past week to announce a restart in eastern Europe, after Romania's Azomures said it would increase production to 50% of capacity in October.
• Several European ammonia producers curtailed or shut production since September 2021 for periods of time due to rising natural gas feedstock prices.