GROWMARK and its cooperative members have acquired a propane terminal from Plains LPG Services near Fort Madison, Iowa. Carol Kitchens with GROWMARK tells Brownfield discussions leading up to this deal began last year. “This process was started, I know, earlier last year and I think Plains was the original owner, and they were looking to reposition the asset, and so they reached out to us.”
Kitchens says GROWMARK already has propane terminals in several other Midwest locations, and adding Fort Madison is well-positioned to serve members soon. “We have possession of the facility today but there’s some work to do to get things transitioned over and actually make sure that we have inventory there to ship.”
As far as propane delivery problems many regions are experiencing, Kitchens doesn’t expect any immediate changes. “In the short term, I’m not sure it changes a lot, to be honest with you, I mean the biggest challenge is getting supply out of the mid-south and deep-south of the United States where there’s plenty of propane, we just can’t seem to get it very effectively up into the upper Midwest.”
She says the industry is evaluating its infrastructure to determine what can be done to prevent delivery issues in the future.