Attached files
| file | filename |
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| EX-32.2 - EXHIBIT 32.2 - TERRA NITROGEN CO L P /DE | tnh-12312016xex322.htm |
| EX-32.1 - EXHIBIT 32.1 - TERRA NITROGEN CO L P /DE | tnh-12312016xex321.htm |
| EX-31.2 - EXHIBIT 31.2 - TERRA NITROGEN CO L P /DE | tnh-12312016xex312.htm |
| EX-31.1 - EXHIBIT 31.1 - TERRA NITROGEN CO L P /DE | tnh-12312016xex311.htm |
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K |
(Mark One) | |
ý | ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016 OR | |
o | TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the transition period from to
Commission file number 033-43007
TERRA NITROGEN COMPANY, L.P.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
Delaware | 73-1389684 | |
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) | (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) | |
4 Parkway North, Suite 400 Deerfield, Illinois | 60015 | |
(Address of principal executive offices) | (Zip Code) | |
Registrant's telephone number, including area code (847) 405-2400 | ||
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act: | ||
Title of each class | Name of each exchange on which registered | |
Common Units Representing Limited Partner Interests Evidenced by Depositary Receipts | New York Stock Exchange | |
Securities registered pursuant to section 12(g) of the Act: None
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes o No ý
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes o No ý
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ý No o
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files). Yes ý No o
Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of Registrant's knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statement incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. ý
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting company. See the definitions of "large accelerated filer," "accelerated filer" and "smaller reporting company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):
Large accelerated filer o | Accelerated filer ý | Non-accelerated filer o | Smaller reporting company o | |||
(Do not check if a smaller reporting company) | ||||||
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act) Yes o No ý
The aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common units held by non-affiliates computed by reference to the price at which the common units were last sold, or the average bid and asked price of such common units, as of the last business day of the registrant's most recently completed second fiscal quarter was $482,335,608.
The number of common units, without par value, outstanding as of February 22, 2017 was 18,501,576.
TERRA NITROGEN COMPANY, L.P.
Table of Contents
TERRA NITROGEN COMPANY, L.P.
Part I
ITEM 1. BUSINESS.
"Notes" referenced throughout this document refer to financial statement note disclosures that are found in Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.
Overview
Terra Nitrogen Company, L.P. ("TNCLP," "we," "our" or "us") is a Delaware limited partnership that produces nitrogen fertilizer products. Our principal products are anhydrous ammonia (ammonia) and urea ammonium nitrate solutions (UAN), which we manufacture at our facility in Verdigris, Oklahoma.
We conduct our operations through an operating partnership, Terra Nitrogen, Limited Partnership (TNLP or the Operating Partnership, and collectively with TNCLP, the Partnership). Terra Nitrogen GP Inc. (TNGP or the General Partner), a Delaware corporation, is the general partner of both TNCLP and TNLP and owns a 0.025% general partner interest in each of TNCLP and TNLP. The General Partner is an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (CF Industries), a Delaware corporation. Ownership of TNCLP is composed of the general partner interests and the limited partner interests. Limited partner interests are represented by common units, which are listed for trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "TNH" and Class B common units. As of December 31, 2016, we had 18,501,576 common units and 184,072 Class B common units issued and outstanding. CF Industries through its subsidiaries owned 13,889,014 common units (representing approximately 75.1% of the total outstanding common units) and all of the Class B common units as of December 31, 2016.
CF Industries, through its subsidiaries, is a global leader in the manufacturing and distribution of nitrogen products, serving both agricultural and industrial customers. CF Industries operates world-class nitrogen manufacturing complexes in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom and distributes plant nutrients through a system of terminals, warehouses, and associated transportation equipment located primarily in the midwestern United States.
For the year ended December 31, 2016, we sold 2.2 million tons of nitrogen fertilizers, recognized net sales of $418.3 million and generated net earnings of $209.3 million. Additional financial information about our business is included in Item 7, Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, and in Item 8, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
TNCLP and TNGP have no employees. Affiliates of the General Partner provides certain services to us under the Amendment to the General and Administrative Services and Product Offtake Agreement (the Services and Offtake Agreement). Pursuant to the Services and Offtake Agreement, the Partnership sells all of its fertilizer products to affiliates of the General Partner at prices based on market prices for the Partnership's fertilizer products as defined in the Services and Offtake Agreement. Title and risk of loss transfer to affiliates of the General Partner as the product is shipped from the plant gate. For further information regarding our agreements with CF Industries and the General Partner, see Note 10—Related Party Transactions.
We are a master limited partnership (MLP). Partnerships are generally not subject to federal income tax, although publicly traded partnerships (such as TNCLP) are treated as corporations for federal income tax purposes (and therefore are subject to federal income tax), unless at least 90% of the partnership's gross income is "qualifying income" as defined in Section 7704 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, and the partnership is not required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940. As we currently satisfy the requirements to be treated as a partnership for federal income tax purposes, no federal income taxes are paid by the Partnership.
On January 19, 2017, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued final regulations on the types of income and activities that constitute or generate qualifying income of a MLP. For calendar year MLPs, the effective date of the regulations is January 1, 2018. The regulations have the effect of limiting the types of income and activities that qualify under the MLP rules, subject to certain transition provisions. The regulations define the activities that generate qualifying income from certain processing or refining and transportation activities with respect to any mineral or natural resource (including fertilizer) as activities that generate qualifying income, but the regulations reserve on specifics regarding fertilizer-related activities. However, the IRS has issued a private letter ruling to a taxpayer in the fertilizer industry unrelated to TNCLP which would indicate that each taxpayer's fertilizer manufacturing activities should produce qualifying income for purposes of determining whether 90% of the partnership's gross income is qualifying income. The entity to which this private letter ruling was issued would appear to operate a nitrogen fertilizer manufacturing business that is similar to ours. While this private letter ruling provides some insight into the manner in which the IRS analyzed fertilizer manufacturing activities at the time this ruling was issued, this private letter ruling is specific to a different entity. Thus, the IRS is not bound to follow it in respect of TNCLP, nor may we rely on it
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as precedent when determining whether we satisfy the MLP 90% gross income test. Any change in the federal income tax treatment of income from fertilizer-related activities as qualifying income could have a material impact on the taxation of the Partnership and could have a material adverse impact on unitholder distributions. We continue to monitor these IRS regulatory activities.
Throughout this document, references to "affiliates of the General Partner" refer to consolidated subsidiaries of CF Industries, including TNGP. CF Industries acquired Terra Industries, Inc. (Terra) in April 2010, and acquired the General Partner and Terra's ownership in the Partnership at that time.
We make available free of charge through CF Industries' Internet website, www.cfindustries.com, all of our reports on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K and all amendments to those reports as soon as reasonably practicable after such material is filed electronically with, or furnished to, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Copies of the General Partner's Corporate Governance Guidelines and charters for the Audit Committee and Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee of the General Partner's Board of Directors (TNGP Board of Directors) are also available on CF Industries' Internet website. We will provide electronic or paper copies of these documents free of charge upon written request delivered to our principal executive offices at the address below. The SEC also maintains a website at www.sec.gov that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC.
Our principal executive offices are located outside of Chicago, Illinois, at 4 Parkway North, Suite 400, Deerfield, Illinois 60015.
Product Tons and Nutrient Tons
Unless otherwise stated, we measure our production and sales volume in this Annual Report on Form 10-K in product tons, which represents the weight of the product measured in short tons (one short ton is equal to 2,000 pounds).
We also provide certain supplementary volume information measured in nutrient tons. Nutrient tons represent the weight of the product’s nitrogen content, which varies by product. Ammonia product tons represent 82% nitrogen content and UAN product tons assume a 32% nitrogen content basis.
Our Products
Our principal products are ammonia and UAN, which we manufacture at our Verdigris, Oklahoma facility. Our nitrogen products are used primarily by farmers to improve the yield and quality of their crops. Although ammonia and UAN are often interchangeable, each has its own characteristics, and customer product preferences vary according to the crop planted, soil and weather conditions, regional farming practices, relative prices and the cost and availability of appropriate storage, handling and application equipment.
Our historical sales of nitrogen fertilizer products are shown in the following table. The sales shown do not reflect product used internally in the manufacture of other products (for example, in 2016 we used approximately 0.7 million tons of ammonia in the production of UAN).
2016 | 2015 | 2014 | ||||||||||||||||||
Tons | Sales | Tons | Sales | Tons | Sales | |||||||||||||||
(tons in thousands; sales dollars in millions) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Nitrogen Fertilizer Products | ||||||||||||||||||||
Ammonia | 409 | $ | 132.2 | 418 | $ | 199.5 | 331 | $ | 150.7 | |||||||||||
UAN | 1,759 | 284.4 | 1,668 | 379.2 | 1,937 | 494.4 | ||||||||||||||
Our gross margin was $226.8 million, $325.8 million and $386.7 million for the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively.
Our Facilities
Our sole production facility, in Verdigris, Oklahoma, is the second largest UAN production facility in North America. It has two ammonia plants, two nitric acid plants and two UAN plants, providing us with some flexibility to adjust our product mix between ammonia and UAN. It has the annual capacity to produce approximately 1.2 million tons of ammonia (most of which is upgraded to UAN) and 2.0 million tons of UAN. The Verdigris facility represents approximately 5% of North American ammonia capacity and 13% of North American UAN capacity.
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The following table summarizes our nitrogen fertilizer production volume for the last three years.
2016 | 2015 | 2014 | ||||||
(tons in thousands) | ||||||||
Ammonia(1) | 1,126 | 1,109 | 1,147 | |||||
UAN (32%) | 1,739 | 1,688 | 1,942 | |||||
_______________________________________________________________________________
(1) | Gross ammonia production, including amounts subsequently upgraded to UAN. |
Our Verdigris location is well suited to serve the midwestern U.S. corn belt. Verdigris is strategically located on approximately 800 acres near Tulsa's Port of Catoosa on the Verdigris River. We lease a port terminal from the Tulsa-Rogers County Port Authority, which provides access to transport fertilizer by way of river barges. In addition, Verdigris is located on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad, providing access to rail transport. We also have access to a 1,100-mile ammonia pipeline. The complex has on-site storage for 60,000 tons of ammonia and 100,000 tons of UAN, providing us with flexibility to handle temporary disruptions to shipping activities without impacting production.
Our capital expenditures are primarily related to plant maintenance and turnaround projects to sustain our asset base, to increase capacity, to improve plant efficiency and to comply with various environmental, health and safety requirements. Occasionally, we have had other capital expenditure projects related to items such as the installation of new plant control systems or construction of additional on-site storage, including the construction of a new 50,000 ton capacity UAN tank that was completed in 2015. Planned capital expenditures and plant turnarounds are subject to change due to delays in regulatory approvals and/or permitting, unanticipated increases in cost, changes in scope and completion time, performance of third parties, adverse weather, defects in materials and workmanship, labor or material shortages, transportation constraints, and other unforeseen difficulties. Capital expenditures also reduce the Available Cash (as defined in our agreement of limited partnership) for unitholder distributions.
Customers
We sell all of the fertilizer products that we produce to affiliates of the General Partner, making it our only customer.
Raw Materials
Natural gas is the principal raw material and primary fuel source used in our ammonia production process. In 2016, natural gas accounted for approximately 58% of our total cost of goods sold for nitrogen fertilizers and a higher percentage of cash production costs (total production costs less depreciation and amortization). Our Verdigris facility has access to abundant, competitively-priced natural gas through a transportation arrangement connecting it to ONEOK Gas Transportation, L.L.C.'s intrastate pipeline system.
In 2016, our Verdigris facility consumed approximately 41 million MMBtus of natural gas. We purchase natural gas from a variety of suppliers to maintain a reliable, competitively-priced supply of natural gas. We also use certain financial instruments to hedge natural gas prices. For further information about our natural gas hedging activities, see Note 7—Derivative Financial Instruments.
Distribution
Our production facility in Verdigris is located near the agricultural areas of the midwestern United States, and has ready access to barge, truck and rail transportation. In addition, the Verdigris facility has access to an ammonia pipeline to transport product to high demand regions.
Competition
The market for nitrogen fertilizer products is global and intensely competitive. Competition in the nitrogen fertilizer market is based primarily on delivered price and to a lesser extent on customer service and product quality. During the peak demand periods, product availability and delivery time also play a role in the buying decisions of customers. Agrium Inc., Koch Nitrogen Company, CVR Partners, LP, LSB Industries, Inc. and CF Industries are all large North American-based producers of nitrogen fertilizer products. Additionally, Iowa Fertilizer Company and Yara BASF are expected to bring new nitrogen fertilizer production facilities located in North America on line in 2017. There is also significant competition from product sourced from other regions of the world, including some with lower natural gas or other feedstock costs.
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Seasonality
The fertilizer business is seasonal. However, the sales pattern of our business can change significantly from year to year due to weather conditions and other factors impacting the agricultural industry. The strongest demand for our products occurs during the spring planting season, with a second period of strong demand following the fall harvest. Wholesale buyers generally build inventories during the low demand periods of the year in order to ensure timely product availability during the peak sales seasons. Seasonality is greatest for ammonia due to the short application season and the limited ability of customers to store significant quantities of this product. The seasonality of fertilizer demand generally results in sales volumes and net sales being the highest during the spring and working capital requirements being the highest just prior to the start of the spring planting season. Our quarterly financial results can vary significantly from one year to the next due to weather-related shifts in planting schedules and purchasing patterns.
Environmental and Other Regulatory Matters
We are subject to numerous environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, including laws and regulations relating to land reclamation; the generation, treatment, storage, disposal and handling of hazardous substances and wastes; and the cleanup of hazardous substance releases. These laws include the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), the Toxic Substances Control Act and various other federal, state and local statutes. Violations can result in substantial penalties, court orders to install pollution-control equipment, civil and criminal sanctions, permit revocations and facility shutdowns. In addition, environmental, health and safety laws and regulations may impose joint and several liability, without regard to fault, for cleanup costs on potentially responsible parties who have released or disposed of hazardous substances into the environment.
We may be subject to more stringent enforcement of existing or new environmental, health and safety laws in the future. Additionally, future environmental, health and safety laws and regulations or reinterpretation of current laws and regulations may require us to make substantial expenditures. Our costs to comply with, or any liabilities under, these laws and regulations could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows and ability to pay cash distributions to unitholders.
Freeport-McMoRan Resource Partners, Limited Partnership (a former owner and operator of the Partnership's production facilities) has retained liability for certain environmental matters originating prior to the Partnership's acquisition of these facilities.
Environmental, Health and Safety Expenditures
Our environmental, health and safety capital expenditures in 2016 totaled approximately $3.5 million. In 2017 we estimate that we will spend approximately $0.8 million for environmental, health and safety capital expenditures. Environmental, health and safety laws and regulations are complex, change frequently and have tended to become more stringent over time. We expect that continued government and public emphasis on environmental issues will result in increased future expenditures for environmental controls at our operations. Such expenditures could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows and ability to pay cash distributions to unitholders.
Legislation and Regulation of Greenhouse Gases
We are subject to greenhouse gas (GHG) regulations. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued federal GHG regulations that impact our facility, including a mandatory GHG reporting rule that required us to commence monitoring GHG emissions beginning on January 1, 2010 and begin reporting the previous year's emissions annually starting in 2011. In addition, if we seek to modify or expand our facility and as a result are required to obtain a Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) air construction permit, we could be subject to pollution control requirements applicable to GHGs in addition to requirements applicable to conventional air pollutants. Such requirements may result in increased costs or delays in completing such facility modifications and expansions.
On December 12, 2015, 195 countries, including the United States, adopted by consensus a new international agreement known as the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement is intended to provide a framework pursuant to which the parties to the agreement will attempt to hold the increase in global average temperatures to below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. The Paris Agreement has been accepted by the United States and went into effect in November 2016. However, as a result of the recent presidential election, the United States may decide to withdraw from the Paris Agreement (or the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which would also result in withdrawal from the Paris Agreement) or, prior to taking such actions, could disregard its commitments under the Paris Agreement. The impact of such actions, if they take place, on the future implementation of the
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Paris Agreement is uncertain. If the Paris Agreement remains in effect, it could result in more aggressive efforts to reduce GHG emissions. There are substantial uncertainties as to the nature, stringency and timing of any future regulations. More stringent GHG limitations, if they are enacted, are likely to have a significant impact on us because our production facility emits GHGs such as carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide and because natural gas, a fossil fuel, is a primary raw material used in our nitrogen production process. Regulation of GHGs may require us to make changes in our operating activities that would increase our operating costs, reduce our efficiency, limit our output, require us to make capital improvements to our facilities, increase our costs for or limit the availability of energy, raw materials or transportation, or otherwise materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows and ability to pay cash distributions to unitholders. In addition, to the extent GHG restrictions are not imposed in countries where our competitors operate or are less stringent than regulations that may be imposed in the United States, our competitors may have cost or other competitive advantages over us.
New Source Performance Standards for Nitric Acid Plants
On August 14, 2012, the EPA issued a final regulation revising air emission standards applicable to newly constructed, reconstructed or modified nitric acid plants. The regulations will apply to our nitric acid plants if and when we undertake activities or operations that are considered modifications, including physical changes that would allow us to increase our production capacity at the plants. The regulations include certain provisions that could make it difficult for us to meet the limits on emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) notwithstanding pollution controls we may add to our plants, and, accordingly, the regulations could impact our ability to expand production at our existing plants. The EPA regulation did not include a limitation on emissions of nitrous oxide (a greenhouse gas).
Employees
TNCLP and TNGP have no employees. An affiliate of the General Partner provides services to us under the Services and Offtake Agreement.
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ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS.
In addition to the other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, you should carefully consider the factors discussed below before deciding to invest in TNCLP's common units. These risks and uncertainties could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows and ability to pay cash distributions to unitholders.
RISKS RELATED TO OUR BUSINESS
We are wholly dependent on our Verdigris manufacturing facility, and any operational disruption could result in a reduction of sales volumes and could cause us to incur substantial expenditures.
Our manufacturing operations, located at a single site in Verdigris, Oklahoma, are subject to significant operating hazards and interruptions. Any significant curtailment of production at one or more of our production units could result in materially reduced revenues and cash flows for the duration of any shutdown. Operations at our manufacturing facility could be curtailed or partially or completely shut down, temporarily or permanently, as the result of a number of circumstances, most of which are not within our control, such as unscheduled maintenance or catastrophic events like a major accident or fire, damage by severe weather or other natural disaster or sabotage or terrorist incidents. The manufacturing operations at our facility could also be subject to interruption if our ammonia storage facilities were to be removed from service due to damage from an accident or natural disaster or sabotage or terrorist incidents, or due to problems discovered during inspections associated with long-term maintenance or safety requirements.
Our business is cyclical, resulting in periods of industry oversupply during which our financial condition, results of operations, cash flows and ability to pay cash distributions to unitholders tend to be negatively affected.
Historically, selling prices for our products have fluctuated in response to periodic changes in supply and demand conditions. Demand is affected by planted acreage and fertilizer application rates, driven by population growth, changes in dietary habits and non-food usage of crops, such as the production of ethanol and other biofuels, among other things. Supply is affected by available capacity and operating rates, raw material costs and availability, government policies and global trade.
Periods of strong demand, high capacity utilization and increasing operating margins tend to stimulate global investment in production capacity. The construction of new nitrogen fertilizer manufacturing capacity in the industry, plus improvements to increase output from the existing production assets, increase nitrogen supply and affect the supply and demand balance. In recent years, fertilizer producers, including CF Industries, have built new production facilities or expanded capacity of existing production assets, or announced plans to do so. In the current environment, global nitrogen fertilizer supply has increased faster than global nitrogen fertilizer demand, creating a global nitrogen fertilizer oversupply leading to lower nitrogen fertilizer selling prices. Lower global production costs driven by lower feedstock costs and foreign exchange rate changes, and reduced ocean freight costs, have further contributed to the lower priced environment.
In 2016, selling prices reached multi-year lows last seen in 2009. The average selling price for our products in 2016 was $193 per ton compared to $279 per ton in 2015, a decrease of 31%.
Additional production capacity has recently come on line, including capacity from CF Industries’ expansion projects, and more production capacity is expected to come on line over the next 12 months. We cannot predict the extent to which the current oversupply environment, global or local economic and financial conditions or changes in such conditions, or other factors may cause delays, cancellation or acceleration of other announced and/or ongoing projects.
We expect the lower priced environment to continue until global supply and demand become more balanced through a combination of continued demand growth and supply reductions as producers respond to lower realized margins by taking higher cost production facilities off line.
During periods of industry oversupply, our financial condition, results of operations, cash flows and ability to pay cash distributions to unitholders tend to be affected negatively as the price at which we sell our products typically declines, resulting in possible reduced profit margins, write-downs in the value of our inventory and temporary or permanent curtailments of production. Our financial performance, the amount of our cash distributions, and the trading price for our common units have been negatively impacted by the lower selling prices resulting from the current global oversupply of nitrogen fertilizer. The period of time that these conditions will persist and the degree to which they will impact our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows and ability to pay cash distributions are uncertain.
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Our products are global commodities, and we face intense global competition from other fertilizer producers.
We are subject to intense price competition from our competitors. Most fertilizers are global commodities, with little or no product differentiation, and customers make their purchasing decisions principally on the basis of delivered price and to a lesser extent on customer service and product quality.
We compete with many producers, including state-owned and government-subsidized entities. Consolidation in the industry has increased, and future consolidation is expected to further increase, the resources of several of our competitors. For example, in September 2016, our competitors Agrium Inc. and Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc. announced plans to merge. Some of our competitors have greater total resources and are less dependent on earnings from fertilizer sales, which make them less vulnerable to industry downturns and better positioned to pursue new expansion and development opportunities. Furthermore, certain governments as owners of some of our competitors may be willing to accept lower prices and profitability on their products in order to support domestic employment or other political or social goals. Our competitive position could suffer to the extent we are not able to expand our own resources, either through investments in new or existing operations or through acquisitions, joint ventures or partnerships.
China, the world's largest producer and consumer of nitrogen fertilizers, currently has significant capacity surplus and many high-cost plants. As a result, the domestic nitrogen industry in China is operating at low rates. If Chinese government policy, devaluation of the Chinese renminbi or decreases in Chinese producers' underlying costs such as the price of Chinese coal encourage increased production capacity utilization, the resulting export volume could adversely affect the balance between global supply and demand and may put downward pressure on global fertilizer prices, which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows and ability to pay cash distributions to unitholders.
A decline in U.S. agricultural production or limitations on the use of our products for agricultural purposes could materially adversely affect the demand for our products.
Conditions in the U.S. agricultural industry significantly impact our operating results. The U.S. agricultural industry can be affected by a number of factors, including weather patterns and field conditions, current and projected grain inventories and prices, domestic and international demand for U.S. agricultural products and U.S. and foreign policies regarding trade in agricultural products. These factors are outside of our control.
State and federal governmental policies, including farm and biofuel subsidies and commodity support programs, as well as the prices of fertilizer products, may also directly or indirectly influence the number of acres planted, the mix of crops planted and the use of fertilizers for particular agricultural applications. Ethanol production in the United States contributes significantly to corn demand, due in part to federal legislation mandating use of renewable fuels. An increase in ethanol production has led to an increase in the amount of corn grown in the United States and to increased fertilizer usage on both corn and other crops that have also benefited from improved farm economics. While the current Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) encourages continued high levels of corn-based ethanol production, a continuing "food versus fuel" debate and other factors have resulted in calls to eliminate or reduce the renewable fuel mandate, or to eliminate or reduce corn-based ethanol as part of the renewable fuel mandate. This could have an adverse effect on corn-based ethanol production, planted corn acreage and fertilizer demand.
Developments in crop technology, such as nitrogen fixation, the conversion of atmospheric nitrogen into compounds that plants can assimilate, or nitrogen-efficient varieties, could also reduce the use of chemical fertilizers and adversely affect the demand for our products. Widespread adoption of emerging application technologies could disrupt traditional application practices, affecting the volume or types of products used and timing of applications. In addition, from time to time various state legislatures have considered limitations on the use and application of chemical fertilizers due to concerns about the impact of these products on the environment. Any reduction in the demand for chemical fertilizer products, including any limitation on the use and application of chemical fertilizer, could affect the demand for our products, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows and ability to pay cash distributions to unitholders.
Our business is dependent on North American natural gas, the prices of which are subject to volatility.
Natural gas is the principal raw material used to produce nitrogen fertilizers. We use natural gas both as a chemical feedstock and as a fuel to produce our nitrogen products. Natural gas comprises a significant portion of the total production cost of our products. The price of natural gas in North America has been volatile in recent years. During 2016, the daily closing price at the Henry Hub, the most heavily-traded natural gas pricing point in North America, reached a low of $1.49 per MMBtu on three consecutive days in March 2016 and a high of $3.77 per MMBtu on December 8, 2016. During the three year period ended December 31, 2016, the daily closing price at the Henry Hub reached a low of $1.49 per MMBtu on three consecutive days in March 2016 and a high of $7.94 per MMBtu on March 5, 2014.
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Changes in the supply of and demand for natural gas can lead to periods of volatile natural gas prices. If high prices were to occur during a period of low fertilizer selling prices, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows and ability to pay cash distributions to unitholders. We sell all of our output of fertilizer products to affiliates of the General Partner at prices determined based on market prices for our fertilizer products as defined in the Services and Offtake Agreement.
The price of natural gas in North America and worldwide has been volatile in recent years and has declined on average due in part to the development of significant natural gas reserves, including shale gas, and the rapid improvement in shale gas extraction techniques, such as hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling. Future production of natural gas from shale formations could be reduced by regulatory changes that restrict drilling or hydraulic fracturing or increase its cost or by reduction in oil exploration and development prompted by lower oil prices and resulting in production of less associated gas. Additionally, increased demand for natural gas, particularly in the Gulf Coast Region, due to increased industrial demand and increased natural gas exports could result in increased natural gas prices. If such reduced production or increased demand were to occur, or if other developments adversely impact the supply/demand balance for natural gas in the United States or elsewhere, natural gas prices could rise, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows and ability to pay cash distributions to unitholders.
Our operations are dependent upon raw materials provided by third parties, and any delay or interruption in the delivery of raw materials may adversely affect our business.
We use natural gas in the manufacture of fertilizers. We purchase the natural gas from third party suppliers. Our natural gas is transported by pipeline to our facility by third party transportation providers or through the use of facilities owned by third parties. Delays or interruptions in the delivery of natural gas may be caused by, among other things, severe weather or natural disasters, unscheduled downtime, labor difficulties, insolvency of our suppliers or their inability to meet existing contractual arrangements, deliberate sabotage and terrorist incidents, or mechanical failures. In addition, the transport of natural gas by pipeline is subject to additional risks, including delays or interruptions caused by capacity constraints, leaks or ruptures. Any delay or interruption in the delivery of natural gas, even for a limited period, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows and ability to pay cash distributions to unitholders.
Our transportation and distribution activities rely on third party providers and are subject to environmental, safety and regulatory oversight. This exposes us to risks and uncertainties beyond our control that may adversely affect our operations and exposes us to additional liability.
We rely on railroad, truck, pipeline, and river barge companies to transport raw materials to our manufacturing complex, to coordinate and deliver finished products into CF Industries' distribution system and to ship finished products to CF Industries' customers. We also lease rail cars in order to ship raw materials and finished products. These transportation operations, equipment and services are subject to various hazards, including adverse operating conditions on the inland waterway system, extreme weather conditions, system failures, work stoppages, delays, accidents such as spills and derailments and other accidents and operating hazards. Additionally, due to the aging infrastructure of certain bridges, roadways, rail lines, river locks, and equipment that our third party service providers utilize, we may experience delays in the shipment of finished product while repairs, maintenance or replacement activities are conducted. Also, certain third party service providers, particularly railroads, have experienced periodic service slowdowns due to capacity constraints in their systems which impact the shipping times of our products.
These transportation operations, equipment and services are also subject to environmental, safety, and regulatory oversight. Due to concerns related to accidents, discharges or other releases of hazardous substances, terrorism or the potential use of fertilizers as explosives, local, state and federal governments could implement new regulations affecting the transportation of raw materials or finished products.
If shipping of our products is delayed as a result of these transportation companies' failure to operate properly, or if new and more stringent regulatory requirements are implemented affecting transportation operations or equipment, or if there are significant increases in the cost of these services or equipment, our revenues and cost of operations could be adversely affected.
The railroad industry continues various efforts to limit the railroads' potential liability stemming from the transportation of Toxic Inhalation Hazard materials, such as the anhydrous ammonia that we transport to and from our facilities. For example, various railroads have implemented tariffs that include provisions that purport to shift liability to shippers to the extent that liabilities arise from third parties with insufficient resources. These initiatives could materially and adversely affect operating expenses and potentially our ability to transport anhydrous ammonia and increase our liability for releases of our anhydrous ammonia while in the care, custody and control of the railroads, for which our insurance may be insufficient or unavailable. New regulations also could be implemented affecting the equipment used to ship our raw materials or finished products.
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Increases in transportation costs, or changes in such costs relative to transportation costs incurred by our competitors, and any railroad industry initiatives that may impact our ability to transport our products, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows and ability to pay cash distributions to unitholders.
Our operations and the production and handling of our products involve significant risks and hazards. We are not fully insured against all potential hazards and risks incident to our business. Therefore, our insurance coverage may not adequately cover our losses.
Our operations are subject to hazards inherent in the manufacture, transportation, storage and distribution of chemical products, including ammonia, which is highly toxic and corrosive. These hazards include: explosions; fires; severe weather and natural disasters; train derailments, collisions, vessel groundings and other transportation and maritime incidents; leaks and ruptures involving storage tanks, pipelines and rail cars; spills, discharges and releases of toxic or hazardous substances or gases; deliberate sabotage and terrorist incidents; mechanical failures; unscheduled plant downtime; labor difficulties and other risks. Some of these hazards can cause bodily injury and loss of life, severe damage to or destruction of property and equipment and environmental damage, and may result in suspension of operations and the imposition of civil or criminal penalties and liabilities.
We are currently insured under CF Industries' property, business interruption, casualty and liability insurance policies, but we are not fully insured against all potential hazards and risks incident to our business. If we were to incur significant liability for which we were not fully insured, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows and ability to pay cash distributions to unitholders. CF Industries' insurance policies are subject to various self-retentions, deductibles and limits. The policies also contain exclusions and conditions that could have a material adverse impact on our ability to receive indemnification thereunder. CF Industries' insurance policies are generally renewed annually. As a result of market conditions, insurance premiums, self-retentions and deductibles for certain insurance policies can increase substantially and, in some instances (including if CF Industries had fully utilized the purchased coverage), certain insurance may become unavailable or available only for reduced amounts of coverage. In addition, significantly increased costs could lead CF Industries to decide to reduce, or possibly eliminate, coverage. There can be no assurance that CF Industries or we will be able to buy and maintain insurance with adequate limits and reasonable pricing terms and conditions.
Cyber security risks could result in disruptions in business operations and adverse operating results.
The information management systems that we use are those provided by CF Industries, while we own the computer control systems that operate our plants. We rely on information technology and computer control systems in many aspects of our business, including internal and external communications, the management of our accounting, financial and supply chain functions and plant operations. Business and supply chain disruptions, plant and utility outages and information technology system and network disruptions due to cyber attacks could seriously harm our operations and materially adversely affect our operating results. Cyber security risks include attacks on information technology and infrastructure by hackers, damage or loss of information due to viruses, the unintended disclosure of confidential information, the misuse or loss of control over computer control systems, and breaches due to employee error. Our exposure to cyber security risks includes exposure through third parties on whose systems we place significant reliance for the conduct of our business. We routinely review and implement security procedures and measures in order to protect our systems and information from being vulnerable to evolving cyber attacks. We believe these measures and procedures are appropriate. However, we may not have the resources or technical sophistication to anticipate, prevent, or recover from rapidly evolving types of cyber attacks. Compromises to our information and control systems could have severe financial and other business implications.
Adverse weather conditions may decrease demand for our fertilizer products, increase the cost of natural gas or materially disrupt our operations.
Weather conditions that delay or disrupt field work during the planting, growing, harvesting or application periods may cause agricultural customers to use different forms of nitrogen fertilizer, which may adversely affect demand for the forms that we sell or may impede farmers from applying our fertilizers until the following application period, resulting in lower demand for our products.
Adverse weather conditions during or following harvest may delay or eliminate opportunities to apply fertilizer in the fall. Weather can also have an adverse effect on crop yields, which could lower the income of growers and impair their ability to purchase fertilizer from CF Industries' customers. Our quarterly financial results can vary significantly from one year to the next due to weather-related shifts in planting schedules and purchasing patterns.
Weather conditions or, in certain cases, weather forecasts, also can affect the price of natural gas, the principal raw material used to make our nitrogen fertilizer products. Colder than normal winters and warmer than normal summers increase the demand for natural gas for power generation and for residential and industrial use, which can increase the cost and/or
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decrease the availability of natural gas. In addition, adverse weather events such as very low temperatures leading to well freeze-offs or hurricanes affecting the Gulf of Mexico coastal states can impact the supply of natural gas and cause prices to rise.
We are subject to numerous environmental, health and safety laws, regulations and permitting requirements, as well as potential environmental liabilities, which may require us to make substantial expenditures.
We are subject to numerous environmental, health and safety laws and regulations in the United States, including laws and regulations relating to the generation and handling of hazardous substances and wastes; the cleanup of hazardous substance releases; the discharge of regulated substances to air or water; and the demolition of existing plant sites upon permanent closure. These laws include the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, CERCLA, the Toxic Substances Control Act and various other federal, state and local laws.
As a fertilizer company working with hazardous substances, our business faces risks of spills, discharges or other releases of those substances into the environment. Certain environmental laws, including CERCLA, impose joint and several liability, without regard to fault, for cleanup costs on persons who have disposed of or released hazardous substances into the environment. Given the nature of our business, we have incurred, are incurring currently, and are likely to incur periodically in the future, liabilities under CERCLA and other environmental cleanup laws at our facility, adjacent or nearby third-party facilities or offsite disposal locations. The costs associated with future cleanup activities that we may be required to conduct or finance may be material. Additionally, we may become liable to third parties for damages, including personal injury and property damage, resulting from the disposal or release of hazardous substances into the environment.
Violations of environmental, health and safety laws can result in substantial penalties, court orders to install pollution-control equipment, civil and criminal sanctions, permit revocations and facility shutdowns. Environmental, health and safety laws change regularly and have tended to become more stringent over time. As a result, we have not always been and may not always be in compliance with all environmental, health and safety laws and regulations. We may be subject to more stringent enforcement of existing or new environmental, health and safety laws in the future. Additionally, future environmental, health and safety laws and regulations or reinterpretation of current laws and regulations may require us to make substantial expenditures. Our costs to comply with, or any liabilities under, these laws and regulations could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows and ability to pay cash distributions to unitholders.
From time to time, our production of anhydrous ammonia has resulted in accidental releases that have temporarily disrupted our manufacturing operations and resulted in liability for administrative penalties and claims for personal injury. To date, our costs to resolve these liabilities have not been material. However, we could incur significant costs if our liability coverage is not sufficient to pay for all or a large part of any judgments against us, or if our insurance carrier refuses coverage for these losses.
We hold numerous environmental and other governmental permits and approvals authorizing operations at our Verdigris facility. Expansion or modification of our operations is predicated upon securing necessary environmental or other permits or approvals. A decision by a government agency to deny or delay issuing a new or renewed regulatory material permit or approval, or to revoke or substantially modify an existing permit or approval, or a determination that we have violated a law or permit as a result of a governmental inspection of our facility could have a material adverse effect on our ability to continue operations at the Verdigris facility and on our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows and ability to pay cash distributions to unitholders. On October 1, 2015, the EPA released a final regulation lowering the national ambient air quality standard for ozone. Ozone attainment designations are expected by October 2017, and this action is expected to result in additional areas of the country being classified as being in nonattainment with the ozone standard and subject to more stringent permitting requirements, which in turn could make it much more difficult and expensive to obtain permits to construct new facilities or expand our existing operations.
Future regulatory restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions in the jurisdictions in which we operate could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows and ability to pay cash distributions to unitholders.
We are subject to GHG regulations. There are substantial uncertainties as to the nature, stringency and timing of any future GHG regulations. On December 12, 2015, 195 countries adopted by consensus a new international agreement known as the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement is intended to provide a framework pursuant to which the parties to the agreement will attempt to hold the increase in global average temperatures to below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. The Paris Agreement has been accepted by the United States and went into effect in November 2016. However, as a result of the recent presidential election, the United States may decide to withdraw from the Paris Agreement (or the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which would
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also result in withdrawal from the Paris Agreement) or, prior to taking such actions, could disregard its commitments under the Paris Agreement. The impact of such actions, if they take place, on the future implementation of the Paris Agreement is uncertain. If the Paris Agreement remains in effect, it could result in more aggressive efforts to reduce GHG emissions. More stringent GHG limitations, if they are enacted, are likely to have a significant impact on us, because our production facility emits GHGs such as carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide and because natural gas, a fossil fuel, is a primary raw material used in our nitrogen production process. Regulation of GHGs may require us to make changes in our operating activities that would increase our operating costs, reduce our efficiency, limit our output, require us to make capital improvements to our facilities, increase our costs for or limit the availability of energy, raw materials or transportation, or otherwise materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows and ability to pay cash distributions to unitholders. In addition, to the extent that GHG restrictions are not imposed in countries where our competitors operate or are less stringent than regulations that may be imposed in the United States, our competitors may have cost or other competitive advantages over us.
Our operating results fluctuate due to seasonality.
The fertilizer business is seasonal. However, the sales pattern of our business can change significantly from year to year due to weather conditions and other factors impacting the agricultural industry. The strongest demand for fertilizer products occurs during the spring planting season, with a second period of strong demand following the fall harvest. Wholesale buyers generally build inventories during the low demand periods of the year to ensure timely product availability during the peak sales seasons. Seasonality is greatest for ammonia due to the short application season and the limited ability of our customers and their customers to store significant quantities of this product. The seasonality of fertilizer demand generally results in sales volumes and net sales being the highest during the spring and working capital requirements being the highest just prior to the start of the spring planting season.
As a result of this seasonality, you will not be able to rely on our operating results in any particular period as an indication of our future performance. In addition, as a consequence of our seasonality, our Available Cash for distributions can be volatile, and will vary quarterly and annually.
Our business is subject to risks involving derivatives, including the risk that our hedging activities might not prevent losses.
We often utilize natural gas derivatives to hedge our financial exposure to the price volatility of natural gas, the principal raw material used in the production of nitrogen-based fertilizers. We have used fixed-price, physical purchase and sales contracts, futures, financial swaps and option contracts traded in the over-the-counter markets or on exchanges.
Our use of derivatives can result in volatility in reported earnings due to the unrealized mark-to-market adjustments that occur from changes in the value of the derivatives that do not qualify for, or to which we do not apply, hedge accounting. To the extent that our derivative positions lose value, we may be required to post collateral with our counterparties, adversely affecting our liquidity and our ability to pay cash distributions to unitholders.
Hedging arrangements are imperfect and unhedged risks will always exist. In addition, our hedging activities may themselves give rise to various risks that could adversely affect us. For example, we are exposed to counterparty credit risk when our derivatives are in a net asset position. The counterparties to our derivatives are multi-national commercial banks, major financial institutions or large energy companies. We monitor the derivative portfolio and credit quality of our counterparties and adjust the level of activity we conduct with individual counterparties as necessary. We also manage the credit risk through the use of multiple counterparties, credit limits, credit monitoring procedures, cash collateral requirements and master netting arrangements. However, our liquidity and cash available for distributions to unitholders could be negatively impacted by a counterparty default on settlement of one or more of our derivative financial instruments.
Our limited access to capital in a time of need could materially adversely impact our business.
We invest capital in our business to comply with environmental, health and safety regulations and policies, maintain our manufacturing assets, improve our production capabilities and capitalize on growth opportunities. The primary source of capital invested in our business is cash from operations. In the event that cash generated from operations is insufficient to fund capital investments, we would need to obtain additional funding in the form of loans or equity. Our ability to obtain such funding would be determined by market conditions at the time of the capital need. Our partnership structure, our reliance on a single manufacturing facility in Verdigris, Oklahoma and our reliance on affiliates of the General Partner as our only customer could impede our ability to obtain such capital, which could materially adversely impact our business, financial condition, results of operations, liquidity and ability to pay cash distributions to unitholders.
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Acts of terrorism and regulations to combat terrorism could negatively affect our business.
Like other companies with major industrial facilities, we may be the target of terrorist activities. Our Verdigris facility stores significant quantities of ammonia and other materials that can be dangerous if mishandled. Any damage to infrastructure facilities, such as electric generation, transmission and distribution facilities, or injury to employees, who could be direct targets or indirect casualties of an act of terrorism, may affect our operations. Any disruption of our ability to produce or distribute our products could result in a significant decrease in revenues and significant additional costs to replace, repair or insure our assets, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows and ability to pay cash distributions to unitholders.
In addition, due to concerns related to terrorism or the potential use of certain fertilizers as explosives, we are subject to various security laws and regulations. These security laws include the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 and the Chemical Facilities Anti-Terrorism Standards regulation. In addition, President Obama issued Executive Order 13650 Improving Chemical Facility Safety and Security to improve chemical facility safety in coordination with owners and operators. Governmental entities could implement new or impose more stringent regulations affecting the security of our plants, terminals and warehouses or the transportation and use of fertilizers. These regulations could result in higher operating costs or limitations on the sale of our products and could result in significant unanticipated costs, lower revenues and reduced profit margins.
We are dependent on CF Industries and its employees for the success of our business.
We are dependent on CF Industries for our success in a number of respects. CF Industries, through subsidiaries, purchases all of the production from our manufacturing facility and, together with its affiliates, provides certain services to us, including staffing, benefits, human resources administration, production planning, manufacturing management, procurement, logistics, accounting, legal, risk management, investor relations and other general and administrative services. CF Industries and its wholly-owned subsidiaries have debt and debt service requirements and we currently do not. Although CF Industries is affected by most of the factors that affect us, a higher level of debt could put CF Industries at greater risk than us in the event business conditions deteriorate materially. Our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows and ability to pay cash distributions to unitholders might be adversely affected by any financial or operational difficulties at CF Industries, including any potential default by CF Industries or its subsidiaries on their debt or any bankruptcy proceeding by CF Industries. Information regarding CF Industries can be obtained in its various filings with the SEC, including Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K.
Deterioration of global market and economic conditions could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows and ability to pay cash distributions to unitholders.
A slowdown of, or persistent weakness in, economic activity caused by a deterioration of global market and economic conditions could adversely affect our business in the following ways, among others: conditions in the credit markets could affect the ability of CF Industries' customers and their customers to obtain sufficient credit to support their operations and the failure of certain key suppliers could increase our exposure to disruptions in supply or to financial losses. We also may experience declining demand and falling prices for some of our products due to CF Industries' customers' reluctance to replenish inventories. Changes in global economic conditions can arise suddenly and the full impact of such changes can be difficult to ascertain, resulting in anxiety among market participants that can persist for protracted periods. For example, concern and uncertainty over the potential impact on the global economy of the referendum in the United Kingdom in June 2016, which resulted in a vote in favor of exiting the European Union, has resulted in increased volatility in the global financial markets. The overall impact of changes in global economic conditions on us is difficult to predict, and our business could be materially adversely impacted.
In addition, conditions in the international market for nitrogen fertilizers significantly influence our operating results. The international market for fertilizers is influenced by such factors as currency exchange rates, including the relative value of the U.S. dollar and its impact upon the cost of importing of nitrogen fertilizers into the United States, foreign agricultural policies, the existence of, or changes in, import or foreign currency exchange barriers in certain foreign markets and the laws and policies of the markets in which we operate that affect foreign trade and investment.
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RISKS RELATED TO OUR PARTNERSHIP STRUCTURE
The General Partner's discretion in determining the level of cash reserves may adversely affect our ability to make cash distributions to our unitholders.
Our cash distributions to our unitholders are based on Available Cash as defined in our agreement of limited partnership. Our agreement of limited partnership provides that the General Partner may reduce Available Cash by establishing cash reserves for the proper conduct of our business or the business of the Operating Partnership (including reserves for future operating and capital needs), to provide funds for future distributions to our unitholders in any one or more of the next four quarters or to comply with applicable law or any agreement or obligation to which we or the Operating Partnership are a party or otherwise bound. These cash reserves will affect the amount of cash available for current distribution to our unitholders.
Our unitholders have limited voting rights and are not entitled to elect the General Partner or the General Partner's directors.
Unlike the holders of common stock in a corporation, our unitholders have only limited voting rights on matters affecting our business and, therefore, limited ability to influence management's decisions regarding our business. Unitholders have no right to elect the General Partner or the TNGP Board of Directors on an annual or other continuing basis. The TNGP Board of Directors, including the independent directors, is chosen entirely by CF Industries as the indirect owner of the General Partner and not by our common unitholders. Unlike publicly-traded corporations, we do not hold annual meetings of our unitholders to elect directors or conduct other matters routinely conducted at annual meetings of shareholders. Furthermore, even if our unitholders are dissatisfied with the performance of the General Partner, the General Partner may only be removed by a vote of the holders of at least 66 2/3% of our outstanding common units, including any common units held by the General Partner and its affiliates (including CF Industries). As a result, given that the General Partner and its affiliates own approximately 75.1% of our outstanding common units, holders of our publicly-traded common units are not able to remove the General Partner under any circumstances.
The control of the General Partner may be transferred to a third party without unitholder consent.
There is no restriction in our agreement of limited partnership on the ability of CF Industries to transfer its equity interest in the General Partner to a third party. The new equity owner of the General Partner would then be in a position to replace the TNGP Board of Directors and the officers of the General Partner with its own choices and to influence the decisions taken by the TNGP Board of Directors and officers of the General Partner.
The TNGP Board of Directors and officers of the General Partner have fiduciary duties to TNGP and its stockholders, and the interests of TNGP and its stockholders may differ significantly from, or conflict with, the interests of our public common unitholders.
The General Partner is responsible for managing us. Although the General Partner has, as limited and reduced by the agreement of limited partnership, fiduciary duties to manage us in a manner that is beneficial to our common unitholders, the directors and officers of the General Partner also have fiduciary duties to manage the General Partner in a manner beneficial to TNGP and its stockholders. The interests of TNGP and its stockholders may differ from, or conflict with, the interests of our common unitholders. In resolving these conflicts, the General Partner may favor its own interests or the interests of holders of TNGP's common stock over our interests and those of our common unitholders.
The potential conflicts of interest include, among others, the following:
• | the General Partner's determination of the amount of our cash expenditures, borrowings and reserves; |
• | the issuance of additional units or the purchase, call, or redemption of outstanding units; |
• | transactions with CF Industries and its affiliates; |
• | the decision to retain separate counsel, accountants or others to perform services on our behalf; |
• | the decision by affiliates of the General Partner to engage in activities that would compete with us; and |
• | the fact that all executive officers of the General Partner, and the majority of the directors of the General Partner, also serve as executive officers of CF Industries. Such executive officers, including the General Partner's chief executive officer, chief financial officer and senior vice presidents, divide their time between our business and the business of CF Industries. These executive officers will face conflicts of interest from time to time in making decisions which may benefit either us or CF Industries. |
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The agreement of limited partnership limits the liability and reduces the fiduciary duties of the General Partner and restricts the remedies available to us and our common unitholders for actions taken by the General Partner that might otherwise constitute breaches of fiduciary duty.
The agreement of limited partnership limits the liability and reduces the fiduciary duties of the General Partner and its directors and officers, while also restricting the remedies available to our common unitholders for actions that, without these limitations and reductions, might constitute breaches of fiduciary duty. For example:
• | The agreement of limited partnership provides that none of the General Partner, any of its affiliates, or any director or officer of the General Partner or any of its affiliates will have any liability for monetary damages to us or our unitholders for any act or omission if such person acted in good faith. |
• | The agreement of limited partnership provides broad flexibility for the directors and officers of the General Partner to be involved in the management of the businesses of the owners of the General Partner, including any businesses that are in competition with our business, and specifically permits the owners of the General Partner to engage in activities that are competitive with our business. The agreement of limited partnership provides that no such activities will constitute a breach of any fiduciary duty owed by the General Partner. |
• | The agreement of limited partnership provides that in connection with its resolution of any conflict of interest by the General Partner, the General Partner may consider: the relative interests of any party involved in such conflict or affected by such action, agreement, transaction or situation and the benefits and burdens relating to such interest, as well as any additional factors as the General Partner determines in its sole discretion to be relevant, reasonable or appropriate under the circumstances. The agreement of limited partnership further provides that, in the absence of bad faith by the General Partner, the resolution provided by the General Partner with respect to any conflict of interest will not constitute a breach of the agreement of limited partnership or any standard of care or duty imposed in the agreement of limited partnership or under any law, rule or regulation. |
By purchasing a common unit, a unitholder becomes bound by the provisions of the agreement of limited partnership, including the provisions described above.
CF Industries and its affiliates are also engaged in fertilizer manufacturing.
The agreement of limited partnership does not prohibit CF Industries and its affiliates, other than TNGP, from owning and operating nitrogen fertilizer manufacturing plants and storage and distribution assets or engaging in any businesses which could compete with our business. In addition, CF Industries has recently constructed certain assets related to our business and may in the future acquire, construct or dispose of additional assets related to our business, without any obligation to offer us the opportunity to purchase or construct any of these assets.
As a publicly-traded partnership we qualify for, and are relying on, certain exemptions from the corporate governance requirements of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
As a publicly-traded partnership, we qualify for, and are relying on, certain exemptions from the NYSE's corporate governance requirements, including:
• | the requirement that a majority of the TNGP Board of Directors consist of independent directors; and |
• | the requirement that the TNGP Board of Directors have a compensation committee that is composed entirely of independent directors. |
As a result of these exemptions, the TNGP Board of Directors is not comprised of a majority of independent directors, and the TNGP Board of Directors did not establish a compensation committee. Accordingly, unitholders do not have the same protections afforded to equity holders of companies that are subject to all of the corporate governance requirements of the NYSE.
Common units are subject to the General Partner's call right.
The General Partner and its affiliates own approximately 75.1% of our outstanding common units. When not more than 25% of the issued and outstanding common units are held by persons other than the General Partner and its affiliates (collectively, non-affiliated persons), we, at the General Partner's sole discretion, may call, or assign to the General Partner or its affiliates, our right to acquire all such outstanding common units held by non-affiliated persons. The purchase price per unit will be the greater of (i) the average of the previous 20 trading days' closing prices as of the date five days before the purchase is announced and (ii) the highest price paid by the General Partner or any of its affiliates for any common unit within the
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90 days preceding the date the purchase is announced. As a result of this right, unitholders may be required to sell their common units at an undesirable time or price and may not receive any return on their investment. Unitholders may also incur a tax liability upon a sale of their common units.
Limited partners of TNCLP may not have limited liability if a court finds that unitholder action constitutes control of our business.
A general partner of a limited partnership generally has unlimited liability for the obligations of the partnership, except for those contractual obligations of the partnership that are expressly made without recourse to the general partner. TNCLP is organized under Delaware law and the Operating Partnership conducts business in Oklahoma. Limited partners of TNCLP (Limited Partners) could be liable for our obligations as if such Limited Partners were general partners if a court or government agency determined that:
• | we were conducting business in a state but had not complied with that particular state's partnership statute; or |
• | Limited Partners' right to act with other unitholders to remove or replace the General Partner, to approve some amendments to our agreement of limited partnership or to take other actions under our agreement of limited partnership constituted "control" of our business. |
Unitholders may have liability to repay distributions.
In the event that (i) we make distributions to our unitholders when our nonrecourse liabilities exceed the sum of (a) the fair market value of our assets not subject to recourse liability and (b) the excess of the fair market value of our assets subject to recourse liability over such liability, or a distribution causes such a result, and (ii) a unitholder knows at the time of the distribution of such circumstances, such unitholder will be liable for a period of three years from the time of the impermissible distribution to repay the distribution under Section 17-607 of the Delaware Revised Uniform Limited Partnership Act (the "Delaware Act").
Likewise, upon the winding up of TNCLP, in the event that (a) we do not distribute assets in the following order: (i) to creditors in satisfaction of their liabilities; (ii) to partners and former partners in satisfaction of liabilities for distributions owed under the agreement of limited partnership; (iii) to partners for the return of their contribution; and (iv) to the partners in the proportions in which the partners share in distributions, and (b) a unitholder knows at the time of such circumstances, then such unitholder will be liable for a period of three years from the impermissible distribution to repay the distribution under Section 17-804 of the Delaware Act.
A purchaser of common units who becomes a Limited Partner is liable for the obligations of the transferring Limited Partner to make contributions to TNCLP that are known by the purchaser at the time it became a Limited Partner, and for unknown obligations if the liabilities could be determined from the agreement of limited partnership.
We may issue additional common units and other equity interests without unitholder approval, which would dilute unitholders' existing interests.
Under our agreement of limited partnership, we are authorized to issue an unlimited number of additional interests without a vote of the unitholders. The issuance by us of additional common units or other equity interests of equal or senior rank will have the following effects:
• | the proportionate ownership interest of unitholders immediately prior to the issuance will decrease; |
• | the amount of cash distributions on each unit will decrease; |
• | the ratio of our taxable income to distributions may increase; |
• | the relative voting strength of each previously outstanding unit will be diminished; and |
• | the market price of the common units may decline. |
TAX RISKS TO OUR COMMON UNITHOLDERS
TNCLP's tax treatment depends on its status as a partnership for U.S. federal income tax purposes, as well as it not being subject to a material amount of entity-level taxation by individual states. If the Internal Revenue Service were to treat TNCLP as a corporation for federal income tax purposes or if it were to become subject to a material amount of entity-level taxation for state tax purposes, then TNCLP's Available Cash would be substantially reduced.
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The anticipated after-tax economic benefit of an investment in our common units depends largely on TNCLP being treated as a partnership for federal income tax purposes. To maintain TNCLP's status as a partnership for federal income tax purposes, current law requires that 90% or more of our gross income for every taxable year consist of "qualifying income," as defined in Section 7704 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the "Code"). We have not requested, and do not plan to request, a ruling from the Internal Revenue Service (the "IRS") on this or any other matter affecting us.
If TNCLP were to be treated as a corporation in any taxable year, its income, gains, losses, deductions and credits would be reflected on its tax return rather than being passed through to unitholders, and its net income would be taxed at corporate rates. In addition, distributions made to unitholders would be treated as dividend income, to the extent of current and accumulated earnings and profits, and in the absence of earnings and profits, as a nontaxable return of capital (to the extent of a unitholder's basis in his units) or as capital gain (after a unitholder's basis in his units has been reduced to zero). If the IRS were to challenge the federal income tax status of TNCLP, it could result in an audit of a unitholder's entire tax return and in adjustments to items on that return which are unrelated to the ownership of our units. In addition, each unitholder would bear the cost of any expenses incurred in connection with an examination of its personal tax return.
There can be no assurance that TNCLP will continue to satisfy the requirements for treatment as a partnership for federal income tax purposes or that the law will not be changed to make TNCLP taxable as a corporation for federal income tax purposes. If such a new law were enacted, then the Minimum Quarterly Distribution (as defined in our agreement of limited partnership) and each of the target distribution levels would be adjusted downward. In such an event, the Minimum Quarterly Distribution and first, second and third target distributions for each quarter thereafter would be reduced to take into account the federal, state and local taxes applicable to TNCLP that would be imposed on the earnings used to make such distributions. For additional information regarding cash distributions, see the "Liquidity and Capital Resources" section of Item 7, Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
If the IRS contests the federal income tax positions we take, the market for our units may be adversely impacted and the cost of any IRS contest will reduce our Available Cash.
We have not requested a ruling from the IRS with respect to TNCLP's treatment as a partnership for federal income tax purposes or any other matter. The IRS may adopt positions that differ from the positions we take. It may be necessary to resort to administrative or court proceedings to sustain some or all of the positions we take. A court may not agree with some or all of our positions. Any contest with the IRS could materially and adversely impact the market for our units and the price at which they trade. In addition, the costs of any contest with the IRS will be borne indirectly by our unitholders because the costs would reduce our Available Cash.
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TERRA NITROGEN COMPANY, L.P.
The tax treatment of publicly-traded partnerships or an investment in our units could be subject to potential legislative, judicial or administrative changes and differing interpretations, possibly on a retroactive basis.
The present U.S. federal income tax treatment of publicly-traded partnerships, including us, or an investment in our units, may be modified by administrative, legislative or judicial interpretation at any time. On January 19, 2017, the IRS issued final regulations on the types of income and activities that constitute or generate qualifying income of a MLP. For calendar year MLPs, the effective date of the regulations is January 1, 2018. The regulations have the effect of limiting the types of income and activities that qualify under the MLP rules, subject to certain transition provisions. The regulations define the activities that generate qualifying income from certain processing or refining and transportation activities with respect to any mineral or natural resource (including fertilizer) as activities that generate qualifying income, but the regulations reserve on specifics regarding fertilizer-related activities. However, the IRS has issued a private letter ruling to a taxpayer in the fertilizer industry unrelated to TNCLP which would indicate that each taxpayer's fertilizer manufacturing activities should produce qualifying income for purposes of determining whether 90% of the partnership's gross income is qualifying income. The entity to which this private letter ruling was issued would appear to operate a nitrogen fertilizer manufacturing business that is similar to ours. While this private letter ruling provides some insight into the manner in which the IRS analyzed fertilizer manufacturing activities at the time this ruling was issued, this private letter ruling is specific to a different entity. Thus, the IRS is not bound to follow it in respect of TNCLP, nor may we rely on it as precedent when determining whether we satisfy the MLP 90% gross income test. Any change in the federal income tax treatment of income from fertilizer-related activities as qualifying income could have a material impact on the taxation of the Partnership and could have a material adverse impact on unitholder distributions.
Our unitholders will be required to pay taxes on their share of TNCLP income even if they do not receive any cash distributions from us.
A unitholder is required to pay U.S. federal income tax and, in certain cases, state and local income taxes on its allocable share of TNCLP's income, whether or not such unitholder receives cash distributions from us. No assurance is given that our unitholders will receive cash distributions equal to their allocable share of taxable income from us.
We prorate our items of income, gain, loss and deduction between transferors and transferees of our units each month based upon the ownership of units as of the close of business on the last day of the preceding month, instead of on the basis of the date a particular unit is transferred.
We prorate our items of income and loss between transferors and transferees of our units each month based upon the ownership of our units as of the close of business on the last day of the preceding month instead of the date a particular unit is transferred. As a result of this monthly allocation, a unitholder transferring units may be allocated income, gain, loss, deduction and credit recognized after the transfer. The use of these proration methods may not be permitted under existing Treasury Regulations promulgated under the Code ("Treasury Regulations"). If the IRS were to challenge this method or new Treasury Regulations regarding allocation methods were issued, we may be required to change the allocation of items of income, gain, loss and deduction among our unitholders.
Tax gain or loss on disposition of our units could be more or less than expected.
If a unitholder sells its units, for income tax purposes, the unitholder will recognize a gain or loss equal to the difference between the amount realized and that unitholder's adjusted tax basis in those units. Because distributions in excess of a unitholder's allocable share of our net taxable income decrease that unitholder's tax basis in its units, the amount, if any, of such prior excess distributions with respect to the units sold will, in effect, become taxable income allocated to that unitholder if the unitholder sells such units at a price greater than that unitholder's tax basis in those units, even if the price received is less than the original cost. Furthermore, a portion of the amount realized, whether or not representing gain, may be taxed as ordinary income due to potential recapture items, including depreciation recapture. In addition, because the amount realized may include a unitholder's share of our nonrecourse liabilities, if a unitholder sells its units, such unitholder may incur a tax liability in excess of the amount of cash received from the sale.
Tax-exempt entities and non-U.S. persons face unique tax issues from owning our units that may result in adverse tax consequences to them.
Investment in our common units by tax-exempt entities, including employee benefit plans and individual retirement accounts (known as IRAs), and non-U.S. persons raises issues unique to them. For example, substantially all of our income allocated to organizations exempt from U.S. federal income tax, including IRA's, pension plans and other retirement plans and arrangements, will constitute unrelated business taxable income and may be taxable to such unitholders. Distributions to non-U.S. persons will be reduced by withholding taxes imposed at the highest applicable effective tax rate, and non-U.S. persons will be required to file U.S. federal income tax returns and pay tax on their share of our taxable income. Any tax-exempt entity
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TERRA NITROGEN COMPANY, L.P.
or non-U.S. person should consult its tax advisor before investing in our units. Any tax-exempt entity or non-U.S. person who currently holds our units should consult with their tax advisor as to the U.S. federal and state tax consequences of their holding of our units, including the taxability of income and/or distributions to them.
We treat each purchaser of our units as having the same tax benefits without regard to the actual units purchased. The IRS may challenge this treatment, which could adversely affect the value of our units.
Because we cannot match transferors and transferees of our units and to maintain the uniformity of the economic and tax characteristics of our common units, we have adopted depreciation and amortization positions that may not conform to all aspects of existing Treasury Regulations. A successful IRS challenge to these positions could adversely affect the amount of tax benefits available to a unitholder or the value of our common units.
The sale or exchange of 50% or more of our capital and profits interests during any twelve-month period will result in a termination of TNCLP for federal income tax purposes.
TNCLP and the Operating Partnership will be considered to have constructively terminated for federal income tax purposes if there is a sale or exchange of 50% or more of the total interests in TNCLP capital and profits within a 12-month period. For purposes of determining whether the 50% threshold has been met, multiple sales of the same interest are counted only once. Because CF Industries currently owns approximately 75.1% of the outstanding common units and all of the outstanding Class B common units of TNCLP, a sale or exchange of all or a substantial portion of CF Industries' interests in TNCLP (including sales or transfers to affiliates of CF Industries), when combined with trading in the open market, may constitute a sale or exchange of 50% or more of the total interest in TNCLP. A constructive termination would, among other things, result in the closing of TNCLP's taxable year for all unitholders and could result in a deferral of depreciation deductions allowable in computing our taxable income. In the case of a unitholder reporting on a taxable year other than a calendar year, the closing of a tax year of TNCLP may also result in more than twelve months of our taxable income or loss being included in such unitholder's taxable income for the year of termination. Termination could also subject us to penalties if we are unable to determine that a termination occurred and therefore failed to make necessary elections in a timely manner.
A unitholder whose units are loaned to a "short seller" to cover a short sale may be considered as having disposed of those units. If so, the unitholder would no longer be treated for federal income tax purposes as a partner with respect to those units during the period of the loan and may recognize gain or loss from the disposition.
Because a unitholder whose units are loaned to a "short seller" to cover a short sale may be considered as having disposed of the loaned units, the unitholder may no longer be treated for federal income tax purposes as a partner with respect to those units during the period of the loan, and the unitholder may recognize gain or loss from such disposition. Moreover, during the period of the loan to the short seller, any of our income, gain, loss or deduction with respect to those units may not be reportable by the unitholder and any cash distributions received by the unitholder as to those units could be fully taxable as ordinary income. Unitholders desiring to assure their status as partners should modify any applicable brokerage account agreements to prohibit their brokers from borrowing their units.
As a result of investing in our units, a unitholder may become subject to state and local taxes and return filing requirements in jurisdictions where we operate or own or acquire property.
In addition to federal income taxes, our unitholders will likely be subject to other taxes, including state and local taxes, imposed by the various jurisdictions in which we conduct business or are otherwise deemed to be taxable now or in the future, even if our unitholders do not live in any of those jurisdictions. Our unitholders may be required to file state income tax returns and pay state income taxes in some or all of these various jurisdictions. Further, our unitholders may be subject to penalties for failure to comply with such requirements.
Income allocated to our common unitholders may be subject to the 3.8% Health Care Surtax.
Beginning in 2013, for federal income tax purposes, certain investment income earned by unitholders has become subject to an additional 3.8% surtax enacted as part of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (the "Health Care Surtax"). Unitholders will need to take into consideration the Health Care Surtax for estimated tax purposes, as well as in the filing of their income tax returns. Gross income from a passive activity, or a trade or business of trading in financial instruments or commodities can be subject to the Health Care Surtax. A "passive activity" is defined to be a trade or business in which the taxpayer does not "materially" participate. This category could include net business income from MLPs such as TNCLP. Investors in our common units are encouraged to consult their tax advisors as to the applicability of the Health Care Surtax to their particular tax situation.
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TERRA NITROGEN COMPANY, L.P.
K-1 Reporting Information is dependent upon proper reporting of purchases and sales by unitholders, their representatives and/or their brokers to TNCLP.
Under applicable federal law, we are permitted and do rely on brokerage firms, investor representatives and investors to report sales and dispositions of TNCLP units to us. This information forms the basis of our tax reporting to unitholders. If an investor (or their broker) fails to timely report a purchase or disposition of a unitholder’s interest in TNCLP, the investor will receive an inaccurate Form K-1. The failure to properly report a disposition of a unitholder’s interest does not mean that a unitholder is a continuing unitholder in TNCLP, rather it means that the investor, their representative or their broker have failed to meet its reporting obligations to us. We accept no responsibility for the failure of unitholders, their representatives or their brokers to comply with their reporting obligations to us.
If the IRS makes audit adjustments to our income tax returns for tax years beginning after December 31, 2017, it may assess and collect any taxes (including any applicable penalties and interest) resulting from such audit adjustment directly from us, in which case our cash available for distribution to our unitholders might be substantially reduced.
Pursuant to the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, for tax years beginning after December 31, 2017, if the IRS makes audit adjustments to our income tax returns, it may assess and collect any taxes (including any applicable penalties and interest) resulting from such audit adjustment directly from us. Generally, we expect to elect to have our General Partner and our unitholders take such audit adjustment into account in accordance with their interests in us during the tax year under audit, but there can be no assurance that such election will be effective in all circumstances. If we are unable to have our General Partner and our unitholders take such audit adjustment into account in accordance with their interests in us during the tax year under audit, our current unitholders may bear some or all of the tax liability resulting from such audit adjustment, even if such unitholders did not own units in us during the tax year under audit. If, as a result of any such audit adjustment, we are required to make payments of taxes, penalties and interest, our cash available for distribution to our unitholders might be substantially reduced. These rules are not applicable to us for tax years beginning on or prior to December 31, 2017.
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TERRA NITROGEN COMPANY, L.P.
FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS
From time to time, in this Annual Report on Form 10-K as well as in other written reports and oral statements, we make forward-looking statements that are not statements of historical fact and may involve a number of risks and uncertainties. These statements relate to analyses and other information that are based on forecasts of future results and estimates of amounts not yet determinable. These statements may also relate to our prospects, future developments and business strategies. We have used the words "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "plan," "predict," "project," "will," or "would" and similar terms and phrases, including references to assumptions, to identify forward-looking statements in this document. These forward-looking statements are made based on currently available competitive, financial and economic data, our current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about the industries and markets in which we operate and management's beliefs and assumptions concerning future events affecting us. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties and factors relating to our operations and business environment, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond our control. Therefore, our actual results may differ materially from what is expressed in or implied by any forward-looking statements. We want to caution you not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. We do not undertake any responsibility to release publicly any revisions to these forward-looking statements to take into account events or circumstances that occur after the date of this document. Additionally, we do not undertake any responsibility to provide updates regarding the occurrence of any unanticipated events which may cause actual results to differ from those expressed or implied by the forward- looking statements contained in this document.
Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations are disclosed under "Risk Factors" in Item 1A and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Such factors include, among others:
• | risks related to our reliance on one production facility; |
• | the cyclical nature of our business and the agricultural sector; |
• | the global commodity nature of our fertilizer products, the impact of global supply and demand on our selling prices, and the intense global competition from other fertilizer producers; |
• | conditions in the U.S. agricultural industry; |
• | the volatility of natural gas prices in North America; |
• | difficulties in securing the supply and delivery of raw materials, increases in their costs or delays or interruptions in their delivery; |
• | reliance on third party providers of transportation services and equipment; |
• | the significant risks and hazards involved in producing and handling our products against which we may not be fully insured; |
• | risks associated with cyber security; |
• | weather conditions; |
• | potential liabilities and expenditures related to environmental, health and safety laws and regulations and permitting requirements; |
• | future regulatory restrictions and requirements related to greenhouse gas emissions; |
• | the seasonality of the fertilizer business; |
• | risks involving derivatives and the effectiveness of our risk measurement and hedging activities; |
• | limited access to capital; |
• | acts of terrorism and regulations to combat terrorism; |
• | risks related to our dependence on and relationships with CF Industries; |
• | deterioration of global market and economic conditions; |
• | risks related to our partnership structure and control of the General Partner by CF Industries; |
• | changes in our available cash for distribution to our unitholders, due to, among other things, changes in our earnings, the amount of cash generated by our operations and the amount of cash reserves established by the General Partner for operating, capital and other requirements; |
• | the conflicts of interest that may be faced by the executive officers of the General Partner, who operate both us and CF Industries; and |
• | tax risks to our common unitholders and changes in our treatment as a partnership for U.S. or state income tax purposes. |
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TERRA NITROGEN COMPANY, L.P.
ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS.
None.
ITEM 2. PROPERTIES.
Information regarding our Verdigris, Oklahoma facility and properties is included in Part I, Item 1. Business—Our Products and —Our Facilities.
ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS.
From time to time, we may be involved in claims, disputes, administrative proceedings and litigation arising in the ordinary course of business. Based on the information available as of the date of this filing, we do not believe that the matters in which the Partnership may be currently involved, either individually or in the aggregate, will have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.
ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES.
Not applicable.
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TERRA NITROGEN COMPANY, L.P.
Part II
ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT'S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES.
TNCLP's common units are traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol "TNH". There is no public trading market with respect to TNCLP's Class B common units. The table below discloses the high and low sales prices of the common units for each quarterly period for 2016 and 2015, as reported on the NYSE Composite Price History.
2016 | 2015 | ||||||||||||||
Quarter | High | Low | High | Low | |||||||||||
1st | $ | 114.99 | $ | 84.12 | $ | 158.70 | $ | 99.22 | |||||||
2nd | 127.00 | 99.55 | 149.88 | 115.05 | |||||||||||
3rd | 122.00 | 104.88 | 125.83 | 98.00 | |||||||||||
4th | 113.35 | 95.92 | 116.35 | 100.50 | |||||||||||
Ownership of TNCLP is composed of the general partner interests and the limited partner interests. The Limited Partners' interests consist of 18,501,576 common units and 184,072 Class B common units. CF Industries through its subsidiaries owned 13,889,014 common units and all of the Class B common units as of December 31, 2016. Based on information received from TNCLP's transfer and service agent, the number of registered unitholders as of February 16, 2017 was 86.
Under TNCLP's agreement of limited partnership, cash distributions to unitholders are based on Available Cash for the quarter as defined therein. Available Cash is defined generally as all cash receipts less all cash disbursements, less certain reserves (including reserves for future operating and capital needs) established as the General Partner determines in its reasonable discretion to be necessary or appropriate. For additional information regarding cash distributions, see the "Liquidity and Capital Resources" section of Item 7, Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
The following table represents cash distributions to the holders of common units, Class B common units and the General Partner declared for the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2015:
Common Units | Class B Common Units | General Partner | Total Distributions Declared | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Total | Per unit | Total | Per unit | Total | |||||||||||||||||||||
(in millions, except per unit amounts) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
2016 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
First Quarter | $ | 53.3 | $ | 2.88 | $ | 0.9 | $ | 4.78 | $ | 36.0 | $ | 90.2 | |||||||||||||
Second Quarter | 28.0 | 1.51 | 0.4 | 2.09 | 11.1 | 39.5 | |||||||||||||||||||
Third Quarter | 47.7 | 2.58 | 0.7 | 4.17 | 30.4 | 78.8 | |||||||||||||||||||
Fourth Quarter | 32.7 | 1.77 | 0.5 | 2.60 | 15.8 | 49.0 | |||||||||||||||||||
2015 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
First Quarter | $ | 46.3 | $ | 2.50 | $ | 0.7 | $ | 4.03 | $ | 29.1 | $ | 76.1 | |||||||||||||
Second Quarter | 38.5 | 2.08 | 0.6 | 3.20 | 21.3 | 60.4 | |||||||||||||||||||
Third Quarter | 43.6 | 2.36 | 0.7 | 3.74 | 26.5 | 70.8 | |||||||||||||||||||
Fourth Quarter | 52.0 | 2.81 | 0.9 | 4.64 | 34.6 | 87.5 | |||||||||||||||||||
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TERRA NITROGEN COMPANY, L.P.
ITEM 6. SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA.
The following selected historical financial data as of December 31, 2016 and 2015 and for the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014 have been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this document. The following selected historical financial data as of December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012 and for the years ended December 31, 2013 and 2012 have been derived from our consolidated financial statements. The selected financial data should be read in conjunction with Item 7, Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, and Item 8, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Year ended December 31, | |||||||||||||||||||
2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | |||||||||||||||
(in millions, except per unit data) | |||||||||||||||||||
Income Statement Data: | |||||||||||||||||||
Net sales | $ | 418.3 | $ | 581.7 | $ | 648.3 | $ | 736.2 | $ | 780.1 | |||||||||
Gross margin | 226.8 | 325.8 | 386.7 | 519.8 | 577.8 | ||||||||||||||
Net earnings | 209.3 | 306.9 | 370.0 | 502.4 | 560.8 | ||||||||||||||
Net earnings per common unit | 7.56 | 10.06 | 12.07 | 15.77 | 17.06 | ||||||||||||||
Partnership Distributions Paid: | |||||||||||||||||||
Limited Partner, common units | $ | 161.7 | $ | 180.4 | $ | 185.1 | $ | 265.6 | $ | 312.1 | |||||||||
Limited Partner, Class B common units | 2.5 | 2.9 | 2.9 | 4.6 | 5.4 | ||||||||||||||
General Partner | 93.3 | 111.5 | 116.1 | 195.0 | 240.8 | ||||||||||||||
Total partnership distributions | $ | 257.5 | $ | 294.8 | $ | 304.1 | $ | 465.2 | $ | 558.3 | |||||||||
Distributions Paid Per Common Unit | $ | 8.74 | $ | 9.75 | $ | 10.00 | $ | 14.35 | $ | 16.86 | |||||||||
December 31, | |||||||||||||||||||
2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | |||||||||||||||
(in millions) | |||||||||||||||||||
Balance Sheet Data: | |||||||||||||||||||
Total assets | $ | 373.3 | $ | 443.7 | $ | 415.8 | $ | 349.8 | $ | 298.6 | |||||||||
Total partners' capital | 338.8 | 387.0 | 374.9 | 309.0 | 271.8 | ||||||||||||||
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TERRA NITROGEN COMPANY, L.P.
ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS.
You should read the following discussion and analysis in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and related notes included in Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data. Notes referenced in this discussion and analysis refer to the notes to consolidated financial statements that are found in Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data—Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements. Unless otherwise stated, our production and sales volume refer to product tons, which represents the weight of the product measured in short tons (one short ton is equal to 2,000 pounds). The following is an outline of the discussion and analysis included herein:
• | Company Overview; |
• | Nitrogen Fertilizer Market Conditions; |
• | Results of Operations; |
• | Liquidity and Capital Resources; |
• | Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements and Contractual Obligations; |
• | Application of Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates; and |
• | Recent Accounting Pronouncements. |
Company Overview
Terra Nitrogen Company, L.P. ("TNCLP," "we," "our" or "us") is a Delaware limited partnership that produces nitrogen fertilizer products. Our principal products are anhydrous ammonia (ammonia) and urea ammonium nitrate solutions (UAN), which we manufacture at our facility in Verdigris, Oklahoma.
We conduct our operations through an operating partnership, Terra Nitrogen, Limited Partnership (TNLP or the Operating Partnership, and collectively with TNCLP, the Partnership). Terra Nitrogen GP Inc. (TNGP or the General Partner), a Delaware corporation, is the general partner of both TNCLP and TNLP and owns a 0.025% general partner interest in each of TNCLP and TNLP. The General Partner is an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (CF Industries), a Delaware corporation. Ownership of TNCLP is composed of the general partner interests and the limited partner interests. Limited partner interests are represented by common units, which are listed for trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "TNH" and Class B common units. As of December 31, 2016, we had 18,501,576 common units and 184,072 Class B common units issued and outstanding. CF Industries through its subsidiaries owned 13,889,014 common units (representing approximately 75.1% of the total outstanding common units) and all of the Class B common units as of December 31, 2016.
CF Industries, through its subsidiaries, is a global leader in the manufacturing and distribution of nitrogen products, serving both agricultural and industrial customers. CF Industries operates world-class nitrogen manufacturing complexes in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom and distributes plant nutrients through a system of terminals, warehouses, and associated transportation equipment located primarily in the midwestern United States.
TNCLP and TNGP have no employees. Affiliates of the General Partner provides certain services to us under the Amendment to the General and Administrative Services and Product Offtake Agreement (the Services and Offtake Agreement). Pursuant to the Services and Offtake Agreement, the Partnership sells all of its fertilizer products to affiliates of the General Partner at prices based on market prices for the Partnership's fertilizer products as defined in the Services and Offtake Agreement. Title and risk of loss transfer to affiliates of the General Partner as the product is shipped from the plant gate. For further information regarding our agreements with CF Industries and the General Partner, see Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements, Note 10—Related Party Transactions.
Throughout this document, references to "affiliates of the General Partner" refer to the consolidated subsidiaries of CF Industries, including TNGP.
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TERRA NITROGEN COMPANY, L.P.
Nitrogen Fertilizer Market Conditions
Our products are global commodities and are subject to price competition. The customers for our products make their purchasing decisions principally on the basis of delivered price and, to a lesser extent, on customer service and product quality. The selling prices of our products fluctuate in response to global market conditions and changes in supply and demand. In the current environment, global nitrogen fertilizer supply has increased faster than global nitrogen fertilizer demand, creating the current global oversupply of nitrogen fertilizer and leading to lower nitrogen fertilizer selling prices.
Our 2016 results were impacted by excess global nitrogen supply and the resulting low nitrogen fertilizer selling prices. The U.S. Gulf is a major global fertilizer pricing point due to the volume of nitrogen fertilizer that trades there. Through most of 2016, nitrogen pricing at the U.S. Gulf declined, often trading below parity with other international pricing points due to low U.S. import demand. Seasonal decreases in agricultural demand combined with delayed customer purchasing activity resulted in nitrogen fertilizer selling prices reaching multi-year lows last seen in 2009 in the second half of the year. Our average selling prices for ammonia and UAN declined by 32% and 29%, respectively, as compared to 2015, which reduced both our net sales and gross margin in 2016 by $178.5 million. In addition, during periods of declining prices, customers tend to delay purchasing fertilizer in anticipation of prices in the future being lower than current prices.
Customers and farmers delayed purchasing through most of 2016 in response to lower selling prices, which reduced inventory levels in the supply chain. Increases in demand for the 2017 spring application caused higher pricing as 2016 ended as customers began taking deliveries in anticipation of the spring application season. A significant amount of new nitrogen production capacity came on line in 2016, and additional production capacity is expected to come on line in 2017, including a significant increase in capacity located in North America. This new capacity will further increase supply. We expect nitrogen fertilizer prices to rise going into the 2017 spring application season due to seasonal demand. However, we expect the lower priced environment to continue until global supply and demand become more balanced through a combination of continued demand growth and supply reductions as producers respond to lower realized margins by taking higher cost production facilities off line.
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TERRA NITROGEN COMPANY, L.P.
Results of Operations
Consolidated Results
We reported net earnings of $209.3 million in 2016 on net sales of $418.3 million compared with 2015 net earnings of $306.9 million on net sales of $581.7 million. Net earnings per common unit in 2016 were $7.56 compared with $10.06 in 2015.
The following table shows the results of operations for the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014:
Year ended December 31, | 2016 vs. 2015 | 2015 vs. 2014 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
2016 | 2015 | 2014 | Change | Percent | Change | Percent | |||||||||||||||||||
(in millions, except as noted) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Net sales | $ | 418.3 | $ | 581.7 | $ | 648.3 | $ | (163.4 | ) | (28 | )% | $ | (66.6 | ) | (10 | )% | |||||||||
Cost of goods sold | 191.5 | 255.9 | 261.6 | (64.4 | ) | (25 | )% | (5.7 | ) | (2 | )% | ||||||||||||||
Gross margin | 226.8 | 325.8 | 386.7 | (99.0 | ) | (30 | )% | (60.9 | ) | (16 | )% | ||||||||||||||
Gross margin percentage | 54.2 | % | 56.0 | % | 59.6 | % | (1.8 | )% | (3.6 | )% | |||||||||||||||
Selling, general and administrative expenses | 17.6 | 18.9 | 16.7 | (1.3 | ) | (7 | )% | 2.2 | 13 | % | |||||||||||||||
Earnings from operations | 209.2 | 306.9 | 370.0 | (97.7 | ) | (32 | )% | (63.1 | ) | (17 | )% | ||||||||||||||
Interest income | 0.1 | — | — | 0.1 | N/M | — | — | % | |||||||||||||||||
Net earnings | $ | 209.3 | $ | 306.9 | $ | 370.0 | $ | (97.6 | ) | (32 | )% | $ | (63.1 | ) | (17 | )% | |||||||||
Net earnings allocable to common units | $ | 139.9 | $ | 186.2 | $ | 223.3 | $ | (46.3 | ) | (25 | )% | $ | (37.1 | ) | (17 | )% | |||||||||
Net earnings per common unit | $ | 7.56 | $ | 10.06 | $ | 12.07 | $ | (2.50 | ) | (25 | )% | $ | (2.01 | ) | (17 | )% | |||||||||
Sales volume (tons in thousands): | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ammonia | 409 | 418 | 331 | (9 | ) | (2 | )% | 87 | 26 | % | |||||||||||||||
UAN(1) | 1,759 | 1,668 | 1,937 | 91 | 5 | % | (269 | ) | (14 | )% | |||||||||||||||
Total | 2,168 | 2,086 | 2,268 | 82 | 4 | % | (182 | ) | (8 | )% | |||||||||||||||
Average selling prices (dollars per ton): | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ammonia | $ | 323 | $ | 477 | $ | 456 | $ | (154 | ) | (32 | )% | $ | 21 | 5 | % | ||||||||||
UAN(1) | 162 | 227 | 255 | (65 | ) | (29 | )% | (28 | ) | (11 | )% | ||||||||||||||
Cost of natural gas (dollars per MMBtu): | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Purchased natural gas costs(2) | $ | 2.32 | $ | 2.49 | $ | 4.28 | $ | (0.17 | ) | (7 | )% | $ | (1.79 | ) | (42 | )% | |||||||||
Realized derivatives loss (gain)(3) | 0.40 | 0.26 | (0.25 | ) | 0.14 | 54 | % | 0.51 | N/M | ||||||||||||||||
Natural gas costs (dollars per MMBtu) | $ | 2.72 | $ | 2.75 | $ | 4.03 | $ | (0.03 | ) | (1 | )% | $ | (1.28 | ) | (32 | )% | |||||||||
Production volume by product (tons in thousands): | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ammonia(4) | 1,126 | 1,109 | 1,147 | 17 | 2 | % | (38 | ) | (3 | )% | |||||||||||||||
UAN(1) | 1,739 | 1,688 | 1,942 | 51 | 3 | % | (254 | ) | (13 | )% | |||||||||||||||
_______________________________________________________________________________
N/M—Not Meaningful
(1) | The nitrogen content of UAN is 32% by weight. |
(2) | Includes the cost of natural gas purchased during the period for use in production. |
(3) | Includes realized gains and losses on natural gas derivatives settled during the period. Excludes unrealized mark-to-market gains and losses on natural gas derivatives. |
(4) | Gross ammonia production, including amounts subsequently upgraded on-site into UAN. |
26
TERRA NITROGEN COMPANY, L.P.
Year ended December 31, 2016 Compared to Year ended December 31, 2015
Our production and sales volume in 2016 was impacted by an unscheduled outage, while in 2015 our production and sales volume was impacted by a scheduled turnaround. In the first quarter of 2016, we experienced an unscheduled outage for maintenance on one of the Verdigris nitrogen complex’s two ammonia plants, resulting in approximately one-half of the complex's ammonia capacity being shut down for approximately two months, and approximately one-half of the complex's UAN capacity being shut down for approximately one month. Maintenance was completed and the affected ammonia plant was restarted in March 2016. In the first quarter of 2015, we commenced planned turnarounds of an ammonia plant and a UAN plant, together representing approximately one-half of the production capacity of the Verdigris nitrogen complex. The ammonia plant turnaround was completed in the first quarter of 2015 and the UAN plant turnaround, including certain follow-on maintenance, was completed in the second quarter of 2015. The net impact of these actions was marginally higher production in 2016, which contributed to higher sales volume for UAN.
Our net sales in 2016 were $418.3 million, a decrease of $163.4 million, or 28%, from net sales of $581.7 million in 2015 due primarily to the decrease in average selling prices resulting from the global fertilizer oversupply for all nitrogen fertilizer products, partially offset by higher UAN sales volume.
UAN average selling prices declined 29% to $162 per ton in 2016 from $227 per ton in 2015 due to the global fertilizer oversupply for all nitrogen fertilizer products. UAN sales volume increased by 5% to 1,759,000 tons in 2016 from 1,668,000 tons in 2015 due to increased UAN production.
Ammonia average selling prices declined 32% to $323 per ton in 2016 from $477 per ton in 2015. The decrease in ammonia average selling prices was due to the global fertilizer oversupply for all nitrogen fertilizer products. Ammonia sales volume decreased 2% in 2016 to 409,000 tons from 418,000 tons in 2015 as unfavorable weather and economic considerations, including declining year-over-year farmer disposable income and futures prices favoring soybeans over corn, led many farmers to delay fertilizer and planting decisions until spring 2017.
The following table shows the components of cost of goods sold and the average cost of goods sold per ton for the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2015:
Year ended December 31, | ||||||||||||||
2016 | 2015 | 2016 vs. 2015 | ||||||||||||
(in millions, except per ton amounts) | ||||||||||||||
Realized natural gas costs | $ | 111.2 | $ | 108.8 | $ | 2.4 | 2 | % | ||||||
Unrealized net mark-to-market (gain) loss on natural gas derivatives | (35.3 | ) | 23.1 | (58.4 | ) | N/M | ||||||||
Payroll-related expenses | 27.9 | 27.9 | — | — | % | |||||||||
Other | 87.7 | 96.1 | (8.4 | ) | (9 | )% | ||||||||
Total cost of goods sold | $ | 191.5 | $ | 255.9 | $ | (64.4 | ) | (25 | )% | |||||
Average cost of goods sold per ton | $ | 88 | $ | 123 | $ | (35 | ) | (28 | )% | |||||
The average cost of goods sold per ton decreased to $88 per ton in 2016 from $123 per ton in 2015. The 28% decrease in the average cost of goods sold per ton was due primarily to an unrealized net mark-to-market gain on natural gas derivatives of $35.3 million in 2016 compared to an unrealized net mark-to-market loss on natural gas derivatives of $23.1 million in 2015, as well as lower idle plant costs, which are shown in the Other line in the table above, due to the turnarounds that occurred in the first half of 2015.
Our gross margin was $226.8 million in 2016 compared to $325.8 million in 2015. Gross margin decreased 30% compared to the prior year due primarily to lower average selling prices partially offset by an unrealized net mark-to-market gain on natural gas derivatives and, to a lesser extent, higher UAN sales volume in 2016 compared to 2015. Gross margin as a percentage of sales decreased to 54.2% in 2016 from 56.0% in 2015.
Total selling, general and administrative expenses, including other general and administrative expenses, were $17.6 million in 2016 compared to $18.9 million in 2015. The decline was due primarily to lower losses on disposal of property, plant and equipment during 2016 compared to 2015.
Our net earnings were $209.3 million in 2016, a decrease of $97.6 million, or 32%, as compared to $306.9 million in 2015. Net earnings decreased due primarily to our lower gross margin driven by lower average selling prices, as discussed above.
27
TERRA NITROGEN COMPANY, L.P.
Year ended December 31, 2015 Compared to Year ended December 31, 2014
In the first quarter of 2015, we commenced planned turnarounds of an ammonia plant and a UAN plant, together representing approximately one-half of the production capacity of the Verdigris nitrogen complex. The ammonia plant turnaround was completed in the first quarter of 2015 and the UAN plant turnaround, including certain follow-on maintenance, was completed in the second quarter of 2015. These turnarounds reduced production in the year ended December 31, 2015 as compared to production in the year ended December 31, 2014.
Our net sales in 2015 were $581.7 million, a decrease of $66.6 million, or 10%, from net sales of $648.3 million in 2014 due primarily to the decrease in UAN average selling prices and decrease in UAN sales volume attributable to lower production as a result of the turnarounds, partially offset by higher ammonia sales volume and ammonia average selling prices.
UAN average selling prices declined 11% to $227 per ton in 2015 from $255 per ton in 2014. The decline in UAN average selling prices was due to excess global supply weighing on global nitrogen fertilizer selling prices and increased UAN imports into the North American market. UAN volume decreased by 14% to 1,668,000 tons in 2015 from 1,937,000 tons in 2014 due to the impact of the UAN plant turnaround in the first half of 2015.
Ammonia sales volume increased 26% in 2015 to 418,000 tons from 331,000 tons in 2014 as a result of the impact of the turnaround of the UAN plant which increased the amount of ammonia available for sale. Additionally, an early spring application window, together with customer preferences for ammonia contributed to the increase. Ammonia selling prices increased 5% to $477 per ton in 2015 from $456 per ton in 2014. The increase in ammonia selling prices was due to a tighter U.S. producer inventory position as we entered 2015.
The following table shows the components of cost of goods sold and the average cost of goods sold per ton for the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014:
Year ended December 31, | ||||||||||||||
2015 | 2014 | 2015 vs. 2014 | ||||||||||||
(in millions, except per ton amounts) | ||||||||||||||
Realized natural gas costs | $ | 108.8 | $ | 164.7 | $ | (55.9 | ) | (34 | )% | |||||
Unrealized net mark-to-market loss (gain) on natural gas derivatives | 23.1 | 12.6 | 10.5 | 83 | % | |||||||||
Payroll-related expenses | 27.9 | 24.0 | 3.9 | 16 | % | |||||||||
Other | 96.1 | 60.3 | 35.8 | 59 | % | |||||||||
Total cost of goods sold | $ | 255.9 | $ | 261.6 | $ | (5.7 | ) | (2 | )% | |||||
Average cost of goods sold per ton | $ | 123 | $ | 115 | $ | 8 | 7 | % | ||||||
The average cost of goods sold per ton increased to $123 per ton in 2015 from $115 per ton in 2014. The 7% increase was due primarily to lower production levels due to plant turnarounds, the impact of higher payroll-related expenses for employees working on turnaround activities and certain items in the other category in the table above, such as higher maintenance costs and higher depreciation as a result of the turnarounds in the first half of 2015. These items were partially offset by lower natural gas costs. Overall, cost of goods sold decreased by 2% from 2014 to $255.9 million in 2015 due primarily to lower UAN sales volume and lower natural gas costs. Realized natural gas costs decreased 32%, from $4.03 per MMBtu in 2014 to $2.75 per MMBtu in 2015. Additionally, we recorded a $23.1 million unrealized net mark-to-market loss on natural gas derivatives in 2015, compared to a $12.6 million unrealized net mark-to-market loss in 2014.
Our gross margin was $325.8 million in 2015 compared to $386.7 million in 2014. Gross margin decreased 16% compared to the prior year due primarily to lower UAN average selling prices as a result of excess global supply and increased UAN imports into the North American market and lower UAN sales volume as a result of reduced production due to the turnaround activities. In addition, gross margin was also impacted by higher average cost of goods sold per ton as a result of the increase in unrealized mark-to-market loss on natural gas derivatives in the year ended December 31, 2015 in comparison to prior year period and higher maintenance costs and higher depreciation costs as a result of the turnaround activities in 2015. Gross margin as a percentage of sales decreased to 56.0% in 2015 from 59.6% in 2014.
Selling, general and administrative expenses were $18.9 million in 2015 compared to $16.7 million in 2014 due primarily to a loss on disposal of certain machinery and equipment during 2015.
Our net earnings were $306.9 million in 2015, a decrease of $63.1 million, or 17%, as compared to $370.0 million in 2014. Net earnings decreased due primarily to the lower gross margin.
28
TERRA NITROGEN COMPANY, L.P.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Summary
Our principal funding needs and uses of cash are working capital, plant turnaround costs, capital expenditures, and quarterly distributions. Our cash and cash equivalents balance as of December 31, 2016 was $39.5 million, a decrease of $66.9 million from the balance of $106.4 million as of December 31, 2015. Our cash and cash equivalents consist primarily of money market mutual funds that invest in U.S. treasuries and direct investments in U.S. treasuries.
Because we sell our product to, and receive payroll and other related services from, affiliates of the General Partner, the affiliates of the General Partner continue to be both debtors and creditors to us.
Cash Flows
The following table summarizes our cash flows from operating, investing and financing activities for each of the past three fiscal years:
Year Ended December 31, | |||||||||||
2016 | 2015 | 2014 | |||||||||
(in millions) | |||||||||||
Total cash provided by (used in): | |||||||||||
Operating activities | $ | 223.5 | $ | 375.1 | $ | 405.3 | |||||
Investing activities | (32.9 | ) | (86.9 | ) | (67.1 | ) | |||||
Financing activities | (257.5 | ) | (294.8 | ) | (312.1 | ) | |||||
(Decrease) increase in cash and cash equivalents | $ | (66.9 | ) | $ | (6.6 | ) | $ | 26.1 | |||
Operating Activities
Net cash provided by operating activities was $223.5 million in 2016 compared to $375.1 million in 2015 and $405.3 million in 2014. The $151.6 million decline in 2016 and the $30.2 million decline in 2015 were due primarily to decreases in net earnings after considering the non-cash depreciation and unrealized net mark-to-market gains and losses on derivatives. Net earnings included depreciation and amortization expense of $40.4 million, $35.8 million and $23.5 million in 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively, and unrealized net mark-to-market (gain) loss on derivatives of $(35.3) million, $24.3 million and $11.4 million in 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively.
Investing Activities
Net cash used in investing activities was $32.9 million in 2016 compared to $86.9 million in 2015 and $67.1 million in 2014. The $54.0 million decrease in 2016 in cash used in investing activities from 2015 was due to higher capital expenditures in 2015 due to planned plant turnaround activities. Cash used in investing activities increased by $19.8 million in 2015 from 2014 due primarily to the planned plant turnaround activities in 2015. Additions to property, plant and equipment were $33.1 million, $87.8 million and $67.1 million in 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively. See further discussion under "Capital Expenditures."
Financing Activities
Net cash used in financing activities was $257.5 million in 2016 compared to $294.8 million in 2015 and $312.1 million in 2014. The $37.3 million decrease in cash used in financing activities in 2016 compared to 2015, and the $17.3 million decrease in cash used in financing activities in 2015 compared to 2014, were both due primarily to changes in distributions paid to unitholders. Distributions paid to our unitholders were $257.5 million, $294.8 million and $304.1 million in 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively. The distributions are paid based on Available Cash, as defined in our agreement of limited partnership. Cash used to fund capital expenditures is a reduction of Available Cash. See further discussion under "Capital Expenditures" regarding capital expenditure programs for 2017. For additional information on distributions, see "Partnership Distributions" and Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements, Note 4—Agreement of Limited Partnership.
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TERRA NITROGEN COMPANY, L.P.
Capital Expenditures
Capital expenditures totaled $33.1 million in 2016 compared to $87.8 million in 2015 with the decrease due primarily to higher capital expenditures in 2015 due to planned plant turnaround activities. Capital expenditures are made to sustain our asset base, to increase capacity, to improve plant efficiency and to comply with various environmental, health and safety requirements. Due to the size, scope and timing of capital projects, certain projects require more than a year to complete.
In 2017, we expect to make capital expenditures in the range of $75 million to $85 million. Approximately one-half of the projected capital expenditures relate to a plant turnaround expected to occur beginning late in the third quarter and continuing into the fourth quarter of 2017. The planned plant turnaround will result in lower ammonia and UAN production, lower sales and lower profitability during the period of the turnaround, which will reduce Available Cash for distributions to unitholders. Additionally, planned maintenance, capital expenditures, and turnarounds are subject to change due to delays in regulatory approvals and/or permitting, unanticipated increases in cost, changes in scope and completion time, performance of third parties, adverse weather, defects in materials and workmanship, labor or material shortages, transportation constraints, and other unforeseen difficulties. Capital expenditures also reduce the Available Cash for unitholder distributions. The plant turnaround expected to begin in the third quarter of 2017 is estimated to cost approximately $40 million, and the calculation of Available Cash for the fourth quarter of 2016 included a reserve of approximately one-third of that amount.
General Partner
The General Partner is an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of CF Industries. Under the General Partner’s governing documents, neither we nor the General Partner may make any bankruptcy filing (or take similar action) without the approval of the General Partner’s independent directors, except in specified circumstances if there are not two independent directors on the General Partner's Board of Directors (the TNGP Board of Directors).
Partnership Distributions
We make quarterly distributions to holders of our general partner interest and limited partner interests based on Available Cash for the quarter as defined in our agreement of limited partnership. Available Cash is defined generally as all cash receipts less all cash disbursements, less certain reserves (including reserves for future operating and capital needs) established as the General Partner determines in its reasonable discretion to be necessary or appropriate. Changes in working capital affect Available Cash, as changes in the amount of cash invested in working capital items (such as increases in inventory and decreases in accounts payable) reduce Available Cash, while declines in the amount of cash invested in working capital items increase Available Cash. We paid distributions of $257.5 million, $294.8 million and $304.1 million to our unitholders in 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively.
We receive 99% of the Operating Partnership's Available Cash (as defined in the Operating Partnership's agreement of limited partnership) and 1% of the Operating Partnership's Available Cash is distributed by the Operating Partnership to the General Partner and its affiliates. Pursuant to our agreement of limited partnership, distributions of our Available Cash are made 99.975% to common and Class B common unitholders and 0.025% to the General Partner except that the General Partner is entitled, as an incentive, to a larger percentage of our distribution of Available Cash to the extent that cumulative distributions of Available Cash exceed specified target levels above the Minimum Quarterly Distributions (MQD) of $0.605 per unit. The General Partner has assigned its right to receive such incentive distributions to an affiliate of the General Partner.
On February 6, 2017, we announced a $1.22 cash distribution per common unit, payable on February 28, 2017 to holders of record as of February 17, 2017. In the fourth quarter of 2016, we exceeded the cumulative MQD amounts and will distribute Available Cash as summarized in the following table:
Income and Distribution Allocation | |||||||||||||||||||
Target Limit | Target Increment | Common Units | Class B Common Units | General Partner (1) | Total | ||||||||||||||
Minimum Quarterly Distributions | $ | 0.605 | $ | 0.605 | 98.990 | % | 0.985 | % | 0.025 | % | 100.00 | % | |||||||
First Target | 0.715 | 0.110 | 98.990 | % | 0.985 | % | 0.025 | % | 100.00 | % | |||||||||
Second Target | 0.825 | 0.110 | 85.859 | % | 0.985 | % | 13.156 | % | 100.00 | % | |||||||||
Third Target | 1.045 | 0.220 | 75.758 | % | 0.985 | % | 23.257 | % | 100.00 | % | |||||||||
Final Target and Beyond | >1.045 | — | 50.505 | % | 0.985 | % | 48.510 | % | 100.00 | % | |||||||||
_______________________________________________________________________________
(1) | Reflects Minimum Quarterly Distributions and incentive distributions to the General Partner. The General Partner has assigned its right to incentive distributions to an affiliate of the General Partner. |
30
TERRA NITROGEN COMPANY, L.P.
General Partner Option to Effect Mandatory Redemption of Partnership Units
At December 31, 2016, the General Partner and its affiliates owned approximately 75.1% of our outstanding common units. When not more than 25% of the issued and outstanding common units are held by persons other than the General Partner and its affiliates (collectively, non-affiliated persons), as was the case at December 31, 2016, we, at the General Partner's sole discretion, may call or assign to the General Partner or its affiliates, our right to acquire all, but not less than all, such outstanding common units held by non-affiliated persons. If the General Partner elects to acquire all outstanding common units, we are required to give at least 30 but not more than 60 days' notice of our decision to purchase the outstanding common units. The purchase price per unit will be the greater of (1) the average of the previous 20 trading days' closing prices as of the date five days before the purchase is announced or (2) the highest price paid by the General Partner or any of its affiliates for any unit within the 90 days preceding the date the purchase is announced.
Cash Transactions with Affiliates
We receive cash and make expenditures directly from our cash accounts. Because we sell our products to and receive payroll and other related services from affiliates of the General Partner, the affiliates of the General Partner continue to be both debtors and creditors to us.
Derivatives
We purchase natural gas at market prices to meet production requirements at our manufacturing facility. Natural gas prices are volatile, and our natural gas acquisition policy allows us to establish derivative positions that are associated with anticipated natural gas requirements. The derivatives that we use are primarily natural gas fixed price swaps and options traded in the over-the-counter markets.
Natural gas derivatives involve the risk of dealing with counterparties and their ability to meet the terms of the contracts. The counterparties to our natural gas derivatives are multi-national commercial banks, major financial institutions and large energy companies. For derivatives that are in net asset positions, we are exposed to credit loss from nonperformance by the counterparties. Credit risk is controlled through the use of multiple counterparties, credit limits, credit monitoring procedures, cash collateral requirements and master netting arrangements.
Internal Revenue Service Regulation Impacting Master Limited Partnerships
We are a master limited partnership (MLP). Partnerships are generally not subject to federal income tax, although publicly-traded partnerships (such as TNCLP) are treated as corporations for federal income tax purposes and therefore are subject to federal income tax, unless at least 90% of the partnership's gross income is "qualifying income" as defined in Section 7704 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, and the partnership is not required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940. As we currently satisfy the requirements to be treated as a partnership for federal income tax purposes, no federal income taxes are paid by the Partnership.
On January 19, 2017, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued final regulations on the types of income and activities that constitute or generate qualifying income of a MLP. For calendar year MLPs, the effective date of the regulations is January 1, 2018. The regulations have the effect of limiting the types of income and activities that qualify under the MLP rules, subject to certain transition provisions. The regulations define the activities that generate qualifying income from certain processing or refining and transportation activities with respect to any mineral or natural resource (including fertilizer) as activities that generate qualifying income, but the regulations reserve on specifics regarding fertilizer-related activities. However, the IRS has issued a private letter ruling to a taxpayer in the fertilizer industry unrelated to TNCLP which would indicate that each taxpayer's fertilizer manufacturing activities should produce qualifying income for purposes of determining whether 90% of the partnership's gross income is qualifying income. The entity to which this private letter ruling was issued would appear to operate a nitrogen fertilizer manufacturing business that is similar to ours. While this private letter ruling provides some insight into the manner in which the IRS analyzed fertilizer manufacturing activities at the time this ruling was issued, this private letter ruling is specific to a different entity. Thus, the IRS is not bound to follow it in respect of TNCLP, nor may we rely on it as precedent when determining whether we satisfy the MLP 90% gross income test. Any change in the federal income tax treatment of income from fertilizer-related activities as qualifying income could have a material impact on the taxation of the Partnership and could have a material adverse impact on unitholder distributions. We continue to monitor these IRS regulatory activities.
31
TERRA NITROGEN COMPANY, L.P.
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements and Contractual Obligations
We have operating leases that are off-balance sheet arrangements. Contractual obligations and commitments to make future payments were as follows as of December 31, 2016:
Payments Due by Period | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | Thereafter | Total | |||||||||||||||||||||
(in millions) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Operating leases | $ | 0.3 | $ | 0.2 | $ | 0.1 | $ | — | $ | — | $ | — | $ | 0.6 | |||||||||||||
Equipment purchases and plant improvements | 19.8 | — | — | — | — | — | 19.8 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Purchase obligations(1) | 26.3 | — | — | — | — | — | 26.3 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Total(2) | $ | 46.4 | $ | 0.2 | $ | 0.1 | $ | — | $ | — | $ | — | $ | 46.7 | |||||||||||||
_______________________________________________________________________________
(1) | Consists of minimum commitments to purchase natural gas based on prevailing ONEOK forward prices as of December 31, 2016, and does not include any amounts related to our natural gas derivatives. |
(2) | We have unrecorded asset retirement obligations (AROs) with an estimated cost of $4.1 million in 2016 dollars at our Verdigris facility that are conditional upon cessation of operations and are not included in this table. For additional information on our AROs, see Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements, Note 11—Asset Retirement Obligations. |
Application of Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
Our discussion and analysis of our financial condition, results of operations, liquidity and capital resources is based upon our consolidated financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (U.S. GAAP). U.S. GAAP requires that we make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues, expenses and related disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities. On an ongoing basis, we evaluate our estimates. We base our estimates on historical experience, technological assessment, opinions of appropriate outside experts, and the most recent information available to us. Actual results may differ from these estimates. Changes in estimates that may have a material impact on our results are discussed in the context of the underlying financial statements to which they relate. The following discussion presents information about our most critical accounting policies and estimates.
Inventory Valuation
We review our inventory account balances at least quarterly, and more frequently if required by market conditions, to determine whether the carrying amount of inventories exceeds their market value. This review process incorporates current industry and customer-specific trends, current operating plans, historical price activity, and selling prices expected to be realized. If the carrying amount of our inventories exceeds its estimated market value, we immediately adjust our carrying values accordingly. Upon inventory liquidation, if the actual sales prices are less than our most recent estimate of market value, additional losses would be recorded in the period of liquidation. Fixed production costs related to idle capacity are not included in the cost of inventories but are charged directly to cost of sales in the period incurred.
Property, Plant and Equipment
Property, plant and equipment are stated at historical cost and depreciation and amortization are computed using the straight-line method over the useful lives of the assets. The useful lives used in computing depreciation and amortization expenses are based on estimates of the period over which the assets will be of economic benefit to us. Useful lives are based on historical experience, manufacturers' or engineering estimates, valuation or appraisal estimates and future business plans. We review the useful lives assigned to our property, plant and equipment on a periodic basis, and change our estimates to reflect the results of those reviews.
32
TERRA NITROGEN COMPANY, L.P.
Scheduled inspections, replacements and overhauls of machinery and equipment at our continuous process manufacturing facility during a full plant shutdown are referred to as plant turnarounds. We account for plant turnarounds under the deferral method, as opposed to the direct expense or built-in overhaul methods. Under the deferral method, expenditures related to turnarounds are capitalized in property, plant and equipment when incurred and amortized to production costs on a straight-line basis over the period benefited, which is until the next scheduled turnaround in up to 5 years. Should the estimated period between turnarounds change, we may be required to amortize the remaining cost of the turnaround over a shorter period, which would lead to higher depreciation and amortization costs. If we used the direct expense method, turnaround costs would be expensed as incurred. Scheduled replacements and overhauls of plant and equipment include the dismantling, repair or replacement and installation of various components including piping, valves, motors, turbines, pumps, compressors, heat exchangers and the replacement of catalyst when a full plant shutdown occurs. Scheduled inspections are also conducted during a full plant shutdown, including required safety inspections, which entail the disassembly of various components such as steam boilers, pressure vessels and other equipment requiring safety certifications. Capitalized turnaround costs have been applied consistently in the periods presented. Internal employee costs and overhead amounts are not considered turnaround costs and are not capitalized. Turnaround costs are classified as investing activities in the consolidated statements of cash flows.
Recoverability of Long-Lived Assets
We review the carrying values of our property, plant and equipment and other long-lived assets in accordance with U.S. GAAP in order to assess recoverability. Factors that we must estimate when performing impairment tests include sales volume, selling prices, raw material costs, operating expenses, inflation, discount rates, exchange rates and capital spending. Significant judgment is involved in estimating each of these factors, which include inherent uncertainties. The factors we use are consistent with those used in our internal planning process. The recoverability of the values associated with our long-lived assets is dependent upon future operating performance. Certain of the operating assumptions are particularly sensitive to the cyclical nature of the fertilizer business. Adverse changes in demand for our products, increase in supply and the availability and costs of key raw materials could significantly affect the results of our review. The recoverability and impairment tests of long-lived assets are required only when conditions exist that indicate the carrying value may not be recoverable.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
See Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements, Note 3—New Accounting Standards for a discussion of recent accounting pronouncements.
ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK.
We are exposed to the impact of changes in the price of natural gas which we use in the manufacture of our nitrogen fertilizer products. Because natural gas prices are volatile, we manage the risk of changes in natural gas prices through the use of derivative financial instruments.
The derivative instruments that we use are primarily natural gas fixed price swaps and options. These contracts settle using NYMEX futures prices, which represent the basis for fair value at any given time. The derivatives are traded in months forward and settlements are scheduled to coincide with anticipated natural gas purchases during those future periods.
As of December 31, 2016 and 2015, we had open natural gas derivative contracts for 29.4 million MMBtus and 59.6 million MMBtus, respectively. A $1.00 per MMBtu increase in the forward curve prices of natural gas as of December 31, 2016 would result in a favorable change in the fair value of these derivative positions by $27.3 million, and a $1.00 per MMBtu decrease would change their fair value unfavorably by $27.3 million.
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TERRA NITROGEN COMPANY, L.P.
ITEM 8. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA.
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
The Partners of Terra Nitrogen Company, L.P.:
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Terra Nitrogen Company, L.P. (a Limited Partnership) (the Partnership) and subsidiaries as of December 31, 2016 and 2015, and the related consolidated statements of operations, partners' capital, and cash flows for each of the years in the three-year period ended December 31, 2016. These consolidated financial statements are the responsibility of the Partnership's management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these consolidated financial statements based on our audits.
We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. An audit also includes assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.
In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of Terra Nitrogen Company, L.P. and subsidiaries as of December 31, 2016 and 2015, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the years in the three-year period ended December 31, 2016, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.
We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), Terra Nitrogen Company, L.P.'s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2016, based on criteria established in Internal Control—Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO), and our report dated February 23, 2017 expressed an unqualified opinion on the effectiveness of the Partnership's internal control over financial reporting.
/s/ KPMG LLP
Chicago, Illinois
February 23, 2017
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TERRA NITROGEN COMPANY, L.P.
Consolidated Balance Sheets
December 31, | |||||||
2016 | 2015 | ||||||
(in millions, except for units) | |||||||
ASSETS | |||||||
Current assets: | |||||||
Cash and cash equivalents | $ | 39.5 | $ | 106.4 | |||
Due from affiliates of the General Partner | 4.0 | 10.4 | |||||
Accounts receivable | 0.6 | 0.8 | |||||
Inventories | 8.6 | 10.7 | |||||
Other current assets | 7.9 | — | |||||
Total current assets | 60.6 | 128.3 | |||||
Property, plant and equipment—net | 301.3 | 307.0 | |||||
Other assets | 11.4 | 8.4 | |||||
Total assets | $ | 373.3 | $ | 443.7 | |||
LIABILITIES AND PARTNERS' CAPITAL | |||||||
Current liabilities: | |||||||
Accounts payable and accrued expenses | $ | 27.8 | $ | 23.5 | |||
Due to affiliates of the General Partner | 4.1 | 4.5 | |||||
Other current liabilities | — | 15.9 | |||||
Total current liabilities | 31.9 | 43.9 | |||||
Other liabilities | 2.6 | 12.8 | |||||
Partners' capital: | |||||||
Limited partners' interests, 18,501,576 common units authorized, issued and outstanding | 286.7 | 308.5 | |||||
Limited partners' interests, 184,072 Class B common units authorized, issued and outstanding | 1.8 | 2.3 | |||||
General Partner's interest | 50.3 | 76.2 | |||||
Total partners' capital | 338.8 | 387.0 | |||||
Total liabilities and partners' capital | $ | 373.3 | $ | 443.7 | |||
See accompanying Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements.
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TERRA NITROGEN COMPANY, L.P.
Consolidated Statements of Operations
Year ended December 31, | |||||||||||
2016 | 2015 | 2014 | |||||||||
(in millions, except per unit amounts) | |||||||||||
Net sales: | |||||||||||
Product sales to affiliates of the General Partner | $ | 417.7 | $ | 580.2 | $ | 647.1 | |||||
Other income from an affiliate of the General Partner | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.6 | ||||||||
Other income | — | 0.9 | 0.6 | ||||||||
Total | 418.3 | 581.7 | 648.3 | ||||||||
Cost of goods sold: | |||||||||||
Materials, supplies and services | 163.6 | 228.0 | 237.6 | ||||||||
Services provided by affiliates of the General Partner | 27.9 | 27.9 | 24.0 | ||||||||
Gross margin | 226.8 | 325.8 | 386.7 | ||||||||
Selling, general and administrative services provided by affiliates of the General Partner | 15.7 | 15.7 | 15.6 | ||||||||
Other general and administrative expenses | 1.9 | 3.2 | 1.1 | ||||||||
Earnings from operations | 209.2 | 306.9 | 370.0 | ||||||||
Interest income | 0.1 | — | — | ||||||||
Net earnings | $ | 209.3 | $ | 306.9 | $ | 370.0 | |||||
Allocation of net earnings: | |||||||||||
General Partner | $ | 67.4 | $ | 117.7 | $ | 143.1 | |||||
Class B common units | 2.0 | 3.0 | 3.6 | ||||||||
Common units | 139.9 | 186.2 | 223.3 | ||||||||
Net earnings | $ | 209.3 | $ | 306.9 | $ | 370.0 | |||||
Net earnings per common unit | $ | 7.56 | $ | 10.06 | $ | 12.07 | |||||
See accompanying Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements.
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TERRA NITROGEN COMPANY, L.P.
Consolidated Statements of Partners' Capital
Common Units | Class B Common Units | General Partner's Interests | Total Partners' Capital | ||||||||||||
(in millions) | |||||||||||||||
Partners' capital as of December 31, 2013 | $ | 264.5 | $ | 1.5 | $ | 43.0 | $ | 309.0 | |||||||
Net earnings | 223.3 | 3.6 | 143.1 | 370.0 | |||||||||||
Distributions | (185.1 | ) | (2.9 | ) | (116.1 | ) | (304.1 | ) | |||||||
Partners' capital as of December 31, 2014 | $ | 302.7 | $ | 2.2 | $ | 70.0 | $ | 374.9 | |||||||
Net earnings | 186.2 | 3.0 | 117.7 | 306.9 | |||||||||||
Distributions | (180.4 | ) | (2.9 | ) | (111.5 | ) | (294.8 | ) | |||||||
Partners' capital as of December 31, 2015 | $ | 308.5 | $ | 2.3 | $ | 76.2 | $ | 387.0 | |||||||
Net earnings | 139.9 | 2.0 | 67.4 | 209.3 | |||||||||||
Distributions | (161.7 | ) | (2.5 | ) | (93.3 | ) | (257.5 | ) | |||||||
Partners' capital as of December 31, 2016 | $ | 286.7 | $ | 1.8 | $ | 50.3 | $ | 338.8 | |||||||
See accompanying Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements.
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TERRA NITROGEN COMPANY, L.P.
Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows
Year ended December 31, | |||||||||||
2016 | 2015 | 2014 | |||||||||
(in millions) | |||||||||||
Operating Activities: | |||||||||||
Net earnings | $ | 209.3 | $ | 306.9 | $ | 370.0 | |||||
Adjustments to reconcile net earnings to net cash provided by operating activities: | |||||||||||
Depreciation and amortization | 40.4 | 35.8 | 23.5 | ||||||||
Unrealized (gain) loss on derivatives | (35.3 | ) | 24.3 | 11.4 | |||||||
Loss on disposal of property, plant and equipment | 0.1 | 2.0 | — | ||||||||
Changes in operating assets and liabilities: | |||||||||||
Accounts receivable | 0.2 | (0.4 | ) | 0.6 | |||||||
Inventories | 2.0 | (1.1 | ) | (3.7 | ) | ||||||
Accounts payable and accrued expenses | 2.5 | (6.7 | ) | 3.1 | |||||||
Due to/from affiliates of the General Partner | 6.0 | 15.1 | 4.4 | ||||||||
Other assets and liabilities | (1.7 | ) | (0.8 | ) | (4.0 | ) | |||||
Net cash provided by operating activities | 223.5 | 375.1 | 405.3 | ||||||||
Investing Activities: | |||||||||||
Additions to property, plant and equipment | (33.1 | ) | (87.8 | ) | (67.1 | ) | |||||
Proceeds from sale of property, plant and equipment | 0.2 | 0.9 | — | ||||||||
Net cash used in investing activities | (32.9 | ) | (86.9 | ) | (67.1 | ) | |||||
Financing Activities: | |||||||||||
Partnership distributions paid | (257.5 | ) | (294.8 | ) | (304.1 | ) | |||||
Other | — | — | (8.0 | ) | |||||||
Net cash used in financing activities | (257.5 | ) | (294.8 | ) | (312.1 | ) | |||||
(Decrease) increase in cash and cash equivalents | (66.9 | ) | (6.6 | ) | 26.1 | ||||||
Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period | 106.4 | 113.0 | 86.9 | ||||||||
Cash and cash equivalents at end of period | $ | 39.5 | $ | 106.4 | $ | 113.0 | |||||
See accompanying Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements.
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TERRA NITROGEN COMPANY, L.P.
Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements
1. Background and Basis of Presentation
Terra Nitrogen Company, L.P. ("TNCLP," "we," "our" or "us") is a Delaware limited partnership that produces nitrogen fertilizer products. Our principal products are anhydrous ammonia (ammonia) and urea ammonium nitrate solutions (UAN), which we manufacture at our facility in Verdigris, Oklahoma.
We conduct our operations through an operating partnership, Terra Nitrogen, Limited Partnership (TNLP or the Operating Partnership, and collectively with TNCLP, the Partnership). Terra Nitrogen GP Inc. (TNGP or the General Partner), a Delaware corporation, is the general partner of both TNCLP and TNLP and owns a 0.025% general partner interest in each of TNCLP and TNLP. The General Partner is an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (CF Industries), a Delaware corporation. Ownership of TNCLP is composed of the general partner interests and the limited partner interests. The general partner interest in TNCLP is represented by 4,720 general partner units. Limited partner interests are represented by common units, which are listed for trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "TNH" and Class B common units. As of December 31, 2016, we had 18,501,576 common units and 184,072 Class B common units issued and outstanding. CF Industries through its subsidiaries owned 13,889,014 common units (representing approximately 75.1% of the total outstanding common units) and all of the Class B common units as of December 31, 2016.
We are a master limited partnership (MLP). Partnerships are generally not subject to federal income tax, although publicly traded partnerships (such as TNCLP) are treated as corporations for federal income tax purposes (and therefore are subject to federal income tax), unless at least 90% of the partnership's gross income is "qualifying income" as defined in Section 7704 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, and the partnership is not required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940. As we currently satisfy the requirements to be treated as a partnership for federal income tax purposes, no federal income taxes are paid by the Partnership.
On January 19, 2017, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued final regulations on the types of income and activities that constitute or generate qualifying income of a MLP. For calendar year MLPs, the effective date of the regulations is January 1, 2018. The regulations have the effect of limiting the types of income and activities that qualify under the MLP rules, subject to certain transition provisions. The regulations define the activities that generate qualifying income from certain processing or refining and transportation activities with respect to any mineral or natural resource (including fertilizer) as activities that generate qualifying income, but the regulations reserve on specifics regarding fertilizer-related activities. However, the IRS has issued a private letter ruling to a taxpayer in the fertilizer industry unrelated to TNCLP which would indicate that each taxpayer's fertilizer manufacturing activities should produce qualifying income for purposes of determining whether 90% of the partnership's gross income is qualifying income. The entity to which this private letter ruling was issued would appear to operate a nitrogen fertilizer manufacturing business that is similar to ours. While this private letter ruling provides some insight into the manner in which the IRS analyzed fertilizer manufacturing activities at the time this ruling was issued, this private letter ruling is specific to a different entity. Thus, the IRS is not bound to follow it in respect of TNCLP, nor may we rely on it as precedent when determining whether we satisfy the MLP 90% gross income test. Any change in the federal income tax treatment of income from fertilizer-related activities as qualifying income could have a material impact on the taxation of the Partnership and could have a material adverse impact on unitholder distributions. We continue to monitor these IRS regulatory activities.
Throughout this document, references to "affiliates of the General Partner" refer to the consolidated subsidiaries of CF Industries, including TNGP.
The accompanying consolidated financial statements have been prepared in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (U.S. GAAP).
2. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
Consolidation
The consolidated financial statements of TNCLP and the accompanying notes include the accounts of the Partnership. All intercompany transactions and balances have been eliminated. Income is allocated to the General Partner and the limited partners of TNCLP (Limited Partners) in accordance with the provisions of the TNCLP agreement of limited partnership that provides for allocations of income between the Limited Partners and the General Partner in the same proportion as cash distributions declared during the year.
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TERRA NITROGEN COMPANY, L.P.
Use of Estimates
The preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent liabilities at the date of the consolidated financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses for the periods presented. Significant estimates and assumptions are used for, but are not limited to, net realizable value of inventories, environmental remediation liabilities, environmental and litigation contingencies, useful lives of property, plant and equipment, the assumptions used in the evaluation of potential impairments of property, plant and equipment and the allowances for doubtful accounts receivable.
Revenue Recognition
The basic criteria necessary for revenue recognition are: 1) evidence that a sales arrangement exists, 2) delivery of goods has occurred, 3) the seller's price to the buyer is fixed or determinable, and 4) collectability is reasonably assured. The title and risk of loss passes to an affiliate of the General Partner as the product is shipped from the plant gate. We recognize revenue when these criteria have been met and when title and risk of loss have been transferred to an affiliate of the General Partner.
Cash and Cash Equivalents
Cash and cash equivalents include highly liquid investments that are readily convertible to known amounts of cash with original maturities of three months or less. The carrying value of cash and cash equivalents approximates fair value.
Due to/from Affiliates of the General Partner
We receive cash and make expenditures directly from our cash accounts. Because we sell our products to and receive payroll and other related services from affiliates of the General Partner, the affiliates of the General Partner continue to be both debtors and creditors to us.
Accounts Receivable and Allowance for Doubtful Accounts
Accounts receivable are recorded at face amounts less an allowance for doubtful accounts. The allowance is an estimate based on historical collection experience, current economic and market conditions, and a review of the current status of each customer's trade accounts receivable. A receivable is past due if payments have not been received within the agreed upon invoice terms. Account balances are charged-off against the allowance when management determines that it is probable the receivable will not be recovered.
Inventories
Inventories are reported at the lower of cost or market and are determined on a first-in, first-out (FIFO) and average cost basis. Inventories include the cost of materials, production labor and production overhead. Market value is reviewed quarterly. Fixed production costs related to idle capacity are not included in the cost of inventories but are charged directly to cost of sales.
Property, Plant and Equipment
Property, plant and equipment are stated at cost. Depreciation and amortization are computed using the straight-line method over the estimate useful life of the property, plant and equipment. Useful lives for property, plant, and equipment range from 10 to 40 years for buildings and 5 to 30 years for machinery and equipment. We periodically review these useful lives and change the estimates to reflect the results of those reviews.
Scheduled inspections, replacements and overhauls of machinery and equipment at our continuous process manufacturing facility are referred to as plant turnarounds. Plant turnarounds are accounted for under the deferral method, as opposed to the direct expense or built-in overhaul methods. Under the deferral method, expenditures related to turnarounds are capitalized when incurred and amortized to production costs on a straight-line basis over the period benefited, which is until the next scheduled turnaround in up to 5 years. If the direct expense method were used, all turnaround costs would be expensed as incurred. Internal employee costs and overhead amounts are not considered turnaround costs and are not capitalized. Turnaround costs are classified as investing activities in our consolidated statements of cash flows. For additional information, see Note 9—Property, Plant and Equipment—Net.
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TERRA NITROGEN COMPANY, L.P.
Recoverability of Long-Lived Assets
We review property, plant and equipment and other long-lived assets in order to assess recoverability based on expected future undiscounted cash flows whenever events or circumstances indicate that the carrying value may not be recoverable. If the sum of the expected future net cash flows is less than the carrying value, an impairment loss is recognized. The impairment loss is measured as the amount by which the carrying value exceeds the fair value of the asset.
Leases
Leases are classified as either operating leases or capital leases. Assets acquired under capital leases are depreciated on the same basis as property, plant and equipment. We currently do not have any capital leases. Rental payments, including rent holidays, leasehold incentives, and scheduled rent increases, if any, are expensed on a straight-line basis over the lease term.
Income Taxes
As a partnership, we are not subject to income taxes. For additional information, see Note 1—Background and Basis of Presentation. The income tax liability of the individual partners is not reflected in our consolidated financial statements.
Derivative Financial Instruments
Natural gas is the principal raw material used to produce nitrogen fertilizers. We use natural gas both as a chemical feedstock and as a fuel to produce ammonia and UAN. We manage the risk of changes in natural gas prices primarily through the use of derivative financial instruments. The derivative instruments that we use are primarily natural gas fixed price swaps and options traded in the over-the-counter markets. These derivatives reference NYMEX futures contract prices, which represent the basis for fair value at any given time. The derivatives are traded in months forward and settlements are scheduled to coincide with anticipated gas purchases during those future periods. We do not use derivatives for trading purposes and are not a party to any leveraged derivatives. We have elected to not apply hedge accounting to our derivatives; as a result, changes in the fair value of the derivatives are recorded in cost of goods sold on our consolidated statements of operations.
Derivatives are recognized on our consolidated balance sheets at fair value. Cash flows related to natural gas derivatives are reported as operating activities in our consolidated statements of cash flows. For additional information on derivatives, see Note 7—Derivative Financial Instruments.
Asset Retirement Obligations
Asset retirement obligations (AROs) are legal obligations associated with the retirement of long-lived assets that result from the acquisition, construction, development or normal operation of such assets. AROs are initially recognized as liabilities as incurred when sufficient information exists to estimate fair value. When initially recognized, the fair value based on discounted future cash flows is recorded both as a liability and an increase in the carrying amount of the related long-lived asset. In subsequent periods, depreciation of the asset and accretion of the liability are recorded. For additional information on AROs, see Note 11—Asset Retirement Obligations.
Environmental
Environmental expenditures that relate to current operations are expensed or capitalized as appropriate. Expenditures that relate to an existing condition caused by past operations are expensed. Expenditures that increase the capacity or extend the useful life of an asset, improve the safety or efficiency of the operations, or mitigate or prevent future environmental contamination are capitalized. Liabilities are recorded when it is probable that a liability has been incurred, the costs can be reasonably estimated, and the liability would not be discounted.
Litigation
From time to time, the Partnership is subject to ordinary, routine legal proceedings related to the usual conduct of its business. From time to time, the Partnership also is involved in legal proceedings regarding public utility and transportation rates, environmental matters, taxes and permits relating to the operations of its plant and facilities. Accruals for such contingencies are recorded to the extent management concludes their occurrence is probable and the financial impact of an adverse outcome is reasonably estimable. Disclosure for specific legal contingencies is provided if the likelihood of occurrence is at least reasonably possible and the exposure is considered material to the consolidated financial statements. In making determinations of likely outcomes of litigation matters, many factors are considered. These factors include, but are not limited to, past history, scientific and other evidence, and the specifics and status of each matter. If the assessment of various factors changes, the estimates may change. Predicting the outcome of claims and litigation, and estimating related costs and exposure involves substantial uncertainties that could cause actual costs to vary materially from estimates and accruals. Legal fees are
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TERRA NITROGEN COMPANY, L.P.
expensed as incurred and are included in selling, general, and administrative services provided by affiliates of the General Partner on our consolidated statements of operations.
3. New Accounting Standards
In February 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued Accounting Standards Update (ASU) No. 2016-02, Leases (Topic 842), which supersedes the lease accounting requirements in Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) Topic 840, Leases. This ASU will require lessees to recognize the rights and obligations resulting from virtually all leases (other than leases that meet the definition of a short-term lease) on their balance sheets as right-of-use assets with corresponding lease liabilities. Quantitative and qualitative disclosures, including significant judgments made by management, will be required. This ASU is effective for fiscal years, and interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after December 15, 2018, with early adoption permitted, and requires the modified retrospective method of adoption. We expect the adoption of this ASU will not have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements or disclosures.
In July 2015, the FASB issued ASU No. 2015-11, Simplifying the Measurement of Inventory (an update to Topic 330, Inventory), effective for annual and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2016. ASU No. 2015-11 changes the inventory measurement principle for entities using the FIFO or average cost methods. For entities utilizing one of these methods, the inventory measurement principle will change from lower of cost or market to the lower of cost and net realizable value. We use the FIFO and average cost methods and expect the adoption of this ASU will not have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements.
In May 2014, the FASB issued ASU 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, which supersedes the revenue recognition requirements in ASC Topic 605, Revenue Recognition. This ASU is based on the principle that revenue is recognized to depict the transfer of goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the entity expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services. This ASU also requires additional disclosure about the nature, amount, timing and uncertainty of revenue and cash flows arising from customer contracts, including significant judgments. Additionally, information concerning the costs to obtain and fulfill a contract, including assets to be recognized, is to be capitalized and disclosed. In July 2015, the FASB voted to defer the effective date of this ASU through the issuance of ASU No. 2015-14, Revenue from Contracts with Customers: Deferral of the Effective Date, to December 15, 2017 for interim and annual reporting periods beginning after that date. Early adoption of the standard as of December 15, 2016 (for interim and annual reporting periods beginning after that date) is permitted by the FASB. We are currently evaluating the impact of the adoption of this ASU on the Amendment to the General and Administrative Services and Product Offtake Agreement (the Services and Offtake Agreement), through which we sell all of our fertilizer products to affiliates of the General Partner, and the related impact on our consolidated financial statements.
4. Agreement of Limited Partnership
Ownership of TNCLP is composed of the general partner interests and the limited partner interests (see Note 1—Background and Basis of Presentation). Holders of common units and Class B common units do not have preemptive rights. Holders of common units are entitled to one vote per common unit with respect to each matter on which holders of common units are entitled to vote. The Class B common units have no voting rights on any matter. Unitholders have only limited voting rights on matters affecting our business and, therefore, limited ability to influence management's decisions regarding our business. Unitholders have no right to elect the General Partner or the TNGP Board of Directors on an annual or other continuing basis. Furthermore, the General Partner may only be removed by a vote of the holders of at least 66 2/3% of our outstanding common units, including any common units held by the General Partner and its affiliates (including CF Industries). Given that the General Partner and its affiliates own approximately 75.1% of our outstanding common units, holders of our publicly-traded common units are not able to remove the General Partner under any circumstances.
We make quarterly distributions to holders of our general partner interest and limited partner interests based on Available Cash for the quarter as defined in our agreement of limited partnership. Available Cash is defined generally as all cash receipts less all cash disbursements, less certain reserves (including reserves for future operating and capital needs) established as the General Partner determines in its reasonable discretion to be necessary or appropriate. Changes in working capital affect Available Cash as changes in the amount of cash invested in working capital items (such as increases in inventory and decreases in accounts payable) reduce Available Cash, while declines in the amount of cash invested in working capital items increase Available Cash. We declared and paid distributions of $257.5 million, $294.8 million and $304.1 million to our unitholders in 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively.
We receive 99% of the Operating Partnership's Available Cash (as defined in the Operating Partnership's agreement of limited partnership) and 1% of the Operating Partnership's Available Cash is distributed by the Operating Partnership to the
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General Partner and its affiliates. Pursuant to our agreement of limited partnership, distributions of our Available Cash are made 99.975% to common and Class B common unitholders and 0.025% to the General Partner except that the General Partner is entitled, as an incentive, to a larger percentage of our distribution of Available Cash to the extent that cumulative distributions of Available Cash exceed specified target levels above the Minimum Quarterly Distributions (MQD) of $0.605 per unit. The General Partner has assigned its right to receive such incentive distributions to an affiliate of the General Partner.
On February 6, 2017, we announced a $1.22 cash distribution per common unit, payable on February 28, 2017 to holders of record as of February 17, 2017. In the fourth quarter of 2016, we exceeded the cumulative MQD amounts and will distribute Available Cash as summarized in the following table:
Income and Distribution Allocation | |||||||||||||||||||
Target Limit | Target Increment | Common Units | Class B Common Units | General Partner(1) | Total | ||||||||||||||
Minimum Quarterly Distributions | $ | 0.605 | $ | 0.605 | 98.990 | % | 0.985 | % | 0.025 | % | 100.00 | % | |||||||
First Target | 0.715 | 0.110 | 98.990 | % | 0.985 | % | 0.025 | % | 100.00 | % | |||||||||
Second Target | 0.825 | 0.110 | 85.859 | % | 0.985 | % | 13.156 | % | 100.00 | % | |||||||||
Third Target | 1.045 | 0.220 | 75.758 | % | 0.985 | % | 23.257 | % | 100.00 | % | |||||||||
Final Target and Beyond | >1.045 | — | 50.505 | % | 0.985 | % | 48.510 | % | 100.00 | % | |||||||||
_______________________________________________________________________________
(1) | Reflects Minimum Quarterly Distributions and incentive distributions to the General Partner. The General Partner has assigned its right to incentive distributions to an affiliate of the General Partner. |
The quarterly cash distributions to the unitholders and the General Partner declared in 2016 and 2015 are as follows:
Common Units | Class B Common Units | General Partner | Total Distributions Declared | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Total | Per unit | Total | Per unit | Total | |||||||||||||||||||||
(in millions, except per unit amounts) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
2016 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
First Quarter | $ | 53.3 | $ | 2.88 | $ | 0.9 | $ | 4.78 | $ | 36.0 | $ | 90.2 | |||||||||||||
Second Quarter | 28.0 | 1.51 | 0.4 | 2.09 | 11.1 | 39.5 | |||||||||||||||||||
Third Quarter | 47.7 | 2.58 | 0.7 | 4.17 | 30.4 | 78.8 | |||||||||||||||||||
Fourth Quarter | 32.7 | 1.77 | 0.5 | 2.60 | 15.8 | 49.0 | |||||||||||||||||||
2015 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
First Quarter | $ | 46.3 | $ | 2.50 | $ | 0.7 | $ | 4.03 | |||||||||||||||||