Nutrien Shuts Point Lisas for Good — 350 Jobs and a Fight Over Who Is to Blame

Folks, the furnaces have gone quiet at one of the most important industrial complexes in the Caribbean, and the people who kept them running are the ones being handed the paperwork.

Nutrien Shuts Point Lisas for Good — 350 Jobs and a Fight Over Who Is to Blame

Port of Spain, Trinidad — Canadian fertiliser giant Nutrien Ltd has confirmed it will indefinitely shut down its Trinidad Nitrogen operations at the Point Lisas Industrial Estate, a decision that leaves hundreds of jobs in the firing line and costs the country a major source of export earnings and foreign exchange.

What Is Actually Being Switched Off

Nutrien's Point Lisas operation is not a single plant. According to Guardian Media, it comprises four ammonia plants with a combined annual production capacity of about 1.8 million tonnes and a urea plant capable of 600,000 tonnes a year. The estate around it holds ten ammonia plants, eight methanol plants and two urea plants, with installed capacity of roughly 5.2 million tonnes of ammonia and 6 million tonnes of methanol a year. Trinidad and Tobago ranked as the world's largest ammonia exporter as recently as 2022. Nutrien's own figures, reported by Guardian Media, put average monthly ammonia exports from the site at 85,000 tonnes and urea at 55,000 tonnes before the shutdown, a combined 140,000 tonnes a month bound for 30 countries. The four Trinidad plants produced 788,470 metric tonnes of ammonia in the first nine months of 2025 alone.

The Year the Gas Stopped

The end did not arrive suddenly. Nutrien implemented a controlled shutdown of the facility on 23 October 2025, citing port access restrictions and what it called a lack of reliable and economic natural gas supply that had reduced the free cash flow contribution of the Trinidad operations over an extended period. Within days, about 350 contract workers were sent home while permanent staff stayed on the payroll. The company described the move as temporary and said it would keep talking to stakeholders. Then, on 1 January 2026, Nutrien's gas supply arrangement expired. According to Guardian Media, the National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago moved to isolate the gas meters serving the facility, effectively cutting off both its gas supply and its access to port operations. At that point, roughly 400 permanent employees and 100 contractors were still attached to the operation. A strategic review launched after that shutdown, which included the possibility of a sale, has now ended. On Monday, the company confirmed the operation will not restart.

Nutrien's Own Words

In a statement issued from Saskatoon on Monday morning, Nutrien said the indefinite shutdown followed "an extensive review of strategic alternatives and engagement with relevant stakeholders". The company's explanation is blunt: "Due to ongoing natural gas constraints and uncertainty, this was determined to be the optimal path to enhance free cash flow and return on invested capital." Dean Perkins, senior vice president for Upstream, Nitrogen and Proprietary Product Operations, said the company was "committed to managing the transition responsibly and safely" and thanked the Trinidad team for its contribution. Nutrien added that the decision will have no impact on its 2026 nitrogen sales volume guidance, because the company had already assumed zero production from Trinidad, and that it can meet customer demand from its North American nitrogen assets through reliability improvements and low-cost debottleneck projects. In other words: Nutrien's position is that the market will not notice. The 350 workers facing retrenchment will.

The Minister Says Gas Was Not the Reason

Energy and Energy Industries Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal did not accept the company's explanation. "We have taken note of the media reports regarding the indefinite shutdown of operations by Nutrien at Point Lisas," he told the Trinidad Express. "The decision taken by Nutrien is unfortunate." He disputed that natural gas constraints drove the decision, saying the company was instead motivated by "the desire to extract a margin that is suitable to their shareholders". Moonilal said the Government, through the National Gas Company, had been in discussions with Nutrien since October 2025 to keep the PCS Nitrogen complex running, and that NGC had gone as far as to offer to purchase it. "At all material times, the National Gas Company has engaged with Nutrien in good faith," he said. "They were invited to engage with the NGC for the supply of gas to the facility but refused to accept that invitation."

The Prime Minister Steps Back

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar put distance between her administration and the retrenchment. Asked by Guardian Media about the layoffs, she said the matter was between the workers and the company. "That is between them and Nutrien. It is Nutrien who made the decision to send them home," she said. The Prime Minister maintained that the National Gas Company has a duty to protect its own workforce and that it had done so, adding that the Government "respects the rights of both NGC and Nutrien to run their businesses as they see fit". Moonilal's own account, given to the Express the same day, records a different emphasis: the National Gas Company had offered outright to buy the PCS Nitrogen complex, and had invited Nutrien to take gas from it.

The Fight in the Open

Former prime minister and energy minister Stuart Young called the shutdown "black and white confirmation" of what he described as the incompetence of the UNC Government in managing the energy sector. "This is a loss of foreign exchange, massive loss of jobs, not only at the plants but all associated service providers as well," he said in a social media post. "This is unfortunately bad news for all of Trinidad and Tobago." He warned that other plant owners would now be asking whether it makes sense to keep operating in Trinidad at all, and that any reputational damage risked pushing investment to neighbouring countries. Moonilal fired back, accusing Young of hypocrisy and listing industrial closures that fell under the previous administration: ArcelorMittal Point Lisas and Central Trinidad Steel in 2016, the Petrotrin refinery and Yara Trinidad's ammonia plant in 2018, and Atlantic LNG Train 1 in 2021.

What the Numbers Say

The commercial context is a gas market under strain. The Express reports that several plants on the estate are currently offline, among them Methanex's Titan unit, the Methanex-BP Atlas plant, Yara International, Nutrien's four ammonia plants and two Proman units, with two more Proman plants running at reduced rates. The National Gas Company has reported a TT$3.285 billion after-tax profit, and earlier this year it proposed raising gas prices 76 percent, from US$3 to US$5.30 per million British thermal units, prompting pushback from industry. Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries data cited by Profercy shows national ammonia production of nearly 1.36 million tonnes between January and May 2026, against 1.73 million tonnes in the same period of 2024. Nutrien's plants produced 1.27 million tonnes of ammonia in 2024, with just over a million tonnes shipped overseas.

An Industry Already Slipping

Nutrien is not the first domino. Less than two weeks before Monday's announcement, Proman Trinidad, the largest tenant on the estate, said it was restructuring its operations and cutting its workforce, citing the same gas constraints. The Methanex Titan plant has been running on a two-year gas contract that came up in September. The Atlas methanol plant, in which Methanex holds a 63.1 percent economic interest, remains indefinitely idled in a preserved state. Across the estate, capacity has been running below nameplate levels for years. NGC chairman Gerald Ramdeen has defended the state company's allocation choices, saying its purpose "is not to keep every plant on the Point Lisas Estate running, simply because we want plants to be running", and that limited gas must be directed to maximise national value. Industry insiders told Guardian Media in January that Nutrien's retreat could mark the end of a 45-year presence in Trinidad and Tobago.

The Workers

Three employees who spoke to Guardian Media, each with more than 20 years of service, said the closure caught them off guard. One described a career ending in a single morning. "A 22-year-old career just like that was over," he said. "What am I to do now?" Following a town hall meeting, employees said severance would be calculated to what they called the bare minimum, with no enhanced offers, and complained that the payments appear to be worked out on an older formula that leaves them worse off than colleagues who left in a 2020 retrenchment. Nutrien has confirmed that "nearly all current roles at the Point Lisas facility will be affected", that reductions will follow consultation, and that some staff may be needed to support a safe transition. Counsellors have been on site.

What Comes Next

Moonilal said he spoke to Nutrien on Monday and would speak to the company again, insisting the Government is "not closing the door on any matter involving that complex", and that restarting the plant remains a priority under Nutrien or another operator. He pointed to gas developments in the pipeline, including the Dragon, Loran and Manatee fields, noting the Manatee jacket was built at La Brea by Tofco. Government is also preparing to issue a request for proposals for the former Petrotrin refinery. The Energy Chamber of Trinidad and Tobago has warned that the losses will reach beyond the plant, hitting contractors, suppliers and service providers, and that skilled workers leaving the sector will be hard to replace when gas supplies improve. It says the recovery outlook runs to 2028. For now the plant is silent, counsellors are on site, and the Government says the door is not closed.

By Jessica Ali, Staff Writer

This article was produced with AI-assisted research and editorial support. Sources: Nutrien Ltd; Trinidad Guardian; Trinidad Express; Trinidad Tribune; BNN Bloomberg; Profercy; The Energy Year; the Energy Chamber of Trinidad and Tobago; the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries; Wikimedia Commons.