Dakota Gas sees record truck and rail shipments of urea in May

For three days in a row at the end of May, Dakota Gasification Company beat previous records for urea fertilizer truck shipments. On May 25, the Basin Electric subsidiary reached the final new all-time truck shipment record in a single day in five years of urea production at Dakota Gas.

The record-after-record-after-record days helped put an exclamation point on a record month for all-time shipments of urea, both truck and rail.

Urea is a granular fertilizer commonly used in agricultural applications. Dakota Gas has the capacity at the Great Plains Synfuels Plant near Beulah, North Dakota, to produce 1,100 tons of urea per day.

“Our staff has spent the last few months focused on building fertilizer inventory and getting ready for the spring sales rush. The teamwork between the plant operations, maintenance, marketing, and logistics teams has been truly impressive. Now we are seeing our hard work come to fruition," said Dale Johnson, Basin Electric senior vice president and Synfuels Plant manager. "Our customers are very satisfied that we have been able to provide a high-quality product when they need it, and we are very satisfied with the economic return we are providing for the cooperative and membership."

Dan Gallagher, Basin Electric director of Commodity Sales and Trading, said fertilizer shipments occurred mostly in May this year. “The Upper Great Plains experienced extended snowfall and cooler weather through late April, which resulted in spring planting beginning in early and mid-May in many areas," he said.