Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves confirmed the incident in a post on X.

“Initial reports indicate the leak is due to an explosion. At this time, no deaths or injuries have been reported,” he said.

The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality last night said air monitoring operations are underway and will continue as long as necessary to ensure public safety.

Anhydrous ammonia is primarily used to produce fertilisers and provides the highest nitrogen content of any fertiliser type.

The CF Industries Yazoo City complex has an annual ammonia production capacity of about 570,000 tonnes, with 48,000 tonnes of storage. It remains unclear how much ammonia was being stored when the explosion occurred.

H2 View’s sister title gasworld has contacted CF for comment but received no response at the time of publication.

In July 2024, the company brought online a carbon dioxide dehydration and compression unit designed to support the transport and permanent storage of up to two million tonnes of CO2 annually.

The project is part of a carbon capture and storage partnership between CF and oil and gas giant ExxonMobil to reduce the plant’s emissions.