Reviewed August 2026 against the U.S. Energy Information Administration, USDA’s Economic Research Service, and CF Industries’ public disclosures.

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Fertilizer’s fossil fuel is natural gas, not oil. Natural gas supplies both the hydrogen and the process heat that turn atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia, and ammonia is the base of nearly every synthetic nitrogen fertilizer sold in the United States — anhydrous ammonia, urea, UAN solutions, and the nitrogen portion of blends like 15-15-15. Oil enters the fertilizer story indirectly, through diesel-fired mining equipment, ocean freight, and farm machinery, not as a feedstock for the nitrogen itself.

Is Oil Used to Make Fertilizer? The Direct Answer

No — crude oil is not the feedstock for nitrogen fertilizer. The confusion is understandable, since both oil and natural gas are fossil fuels pulled from the same wells in many U.S. basins. But the chemistry only works with natural gas. Ammonia synthesis needs hydrogen, and steam methane reforming pulls that hydrogen out of methane (CH₄), the main component of natural gas. According to a Congressional Research Service brief on ammonia, most U.S. ammonia producers use natural gas as the primary hydrogen feedstock, and more than 70% of global ammonia is generated from natural gas. Oil-derived naphtha can technically substitute for gas in a steam reformer, and some plants outside North America have used it, but no U.S. nitrogen complex runs on it today.

Where oil does show up is downstream and upstream of the chemistry: diesel powers the draglines and haul trucks at phosphate and potash mines, bunker fuel moves ammonia and urea on ocean tankers, and diesel or gasoline runs the tractors, spreaders, and delivery trucks that get fertilizer onto a field. None of that is feedstock — it’s logistics. The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s sector breakdown of natural gas use makes the split visible: industry (which includes ammonia plants) accounted for 32% of total U.S. natural gas consumption in 2023, while electric power took 40%, residential use 14%, commercial use 10%, and transportation 4%. Oil doesn’t appear in that natural-gas accounting at all, because it isn’t the same input.

How Natural Gas Becomes Fertilizer: The Chemistry

So how is natural gas used to make fertilizer, step by step? The process is the same Haber-Bosch chemistry that has run for more than a century, executed at industrial scale:

1. Steam methane reforming: Natural gas (CH₄) reacts with steam over a catalyst to release hydrogen (H₂) and carbon dioxide.
2. Ammonia synthesis: That hydrogen combines with nitrogen (N₂) pulled from the air, under high pressure and heat, to form ammonia (NH₃).
3. Downstream conversion: Ammonia is reacted further into urea, ammonium nitrate, ammonium sulfate, or UAN solution.
4. Granulation and blending: Products are granulated, prilled, or blended with phosphate and potash into finished bags and bulk loads.

Gas used to make fertilizer isn’t a minor input to that reaction — it’s most of the cost. CF Industries, which operates the largest single nitrogen complex in North America, states plainly that natural gas “accounts for approximately 70 percent of the cost to manufacture ammonia” at its plants, and its 2026 pricing FAQ repeats that more than 70% of the variable cost to produce ammonia comes from natural gas for many global producers. That single number explains why ammonia prices move almost in lockstep with gas prices: when gas gets more expensive, there is very little other cost left to absorb the increase.

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What “Integrated Gas Fertiliser” Means in Practice

An integrated gas fertiliser complex is a single industrial site where natural gas comes in by pipeline and finished nitrogen products go out by rail, barge, or truck — with ammonia, urea, nitric acid, and UAN production all co-located so intermediate products never have to be shipped between separate plants. CF Industries’ Donaldsonville, Louisiana site is the clearest U.S. example. Spanning 1,400 acres along the Mississippi River, it runs six ammonia plants, five urea plants, four nitric acid plants, three UAN plants, and a diesel exhaust fluid plant, producing nearly 8 million tons of nitrogen products a year and employing roughly 485 permanent staff plus 500 contractors on site.

The integration matters commercially, not just architecturally. Ammonia made on-site feeds directly into urea and UAN units without a separate transport or storage step, and the site’s own carbon dioxide byproduct — a co-product of steam methane reforming — is captured and used or sequestered rather than trucked elsewhere. That’s the economic logic behind every integrated gas fertiliser complex, from the U.S. Gulf Coast to gas-rich regions overseas: keep the whole chain, from methane molecule to finished granule, inside one gate.

Integration also concentrates risk. When natural gas or nitrogen supply is disrupted at a hub feeding several of these complexes, the effect on global fertilizer prices is immediate and disproportionate. CF Industries’ own 2026 pricing FAQ points to exactly this: the closure of the Strait of Hormuz during an Iran-related conflict halted vessel traffic carrying roughly 30% of globally traded ammonia and 35% of globally traded urea, and squeezed LNG-import-dependent nitrogen producers in Europe and South Asia hardest, while noting that U.S. prices stayed lower than global prices through the disruption.

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Natural Gas Prices and What Farmers Actually Pay

The link between the gas market and the fertilizer bill shows up clearly in the numbers. USDA’s Economic Research Service reported that after the 2021 run-up, anhydrous ammonia peaked above $1,600 per ton and urea surpassed $1,000 per ton in 2022, before easing through 2023 and 2024 to levels that had “stabilized” by early 2025 while staying above pre-2021 levels. By March 20, 2026, University of Illinois farmdoc daily reported anhydrous ammonia at $998 per ton, urea at $823 per ton, and 32% UAN at $570 per ton, up from mid-February 2026 levels because of the Iran-related conflict discussed above. That same farmdoc analysis assumed a natural gas price of $3.50 per MMBtu for its forecast — below the $3.71 average of the prior year, which is why the March 2026 spike traced back to trade disruption rather than to gas costs alone.

Gas prices themselves are forecast to stay in a similar band before moving up. The EIA’s January 2026 outlook put the Henry Hub spot price at just under $3.50 per MMBtu for 2026 — a roughly 2% decline from 2025 — before rising to just under $4.60 per MMBtu in 2027 as liquefied natural gas export capacity expands and pulls more domestic gas toward international buyers. Because nitrogen plants compete for that same gas, a rising Henry Hub price flows into ammonia’s manufacturing cost on close to the 70% pass-through CF Industries describes.

The wide gap between what natural gas costs and what ammonia costs is exactly what a low-carbon alternative would need to close. The Congressional Research Service brief cited earlier put conventional gas- and coal-based ammonia production cost at $110–$340 per metric tonne, against $720–$1,400 per tonne for low-carbon ammonia routes as assessed in 2022 — a gap wide enough that gas-based ammonia is likely to remain the default for U.S. nitrogen fertilizer for the foreseeable future, absent a major shift in either gas prices or carbon policy.

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15-15-15, 5-10-5, and 14-14-14: What the Numbers Mean

The three numbers on any fertilizer bag are its guaranteed analysis, always in the same order: percent nitrogen (N), percent phosphorus expressed as phosphate (P₂O₅), and percent potassium expressed as potash (K₂O), by weight. Cornell University's turf and grounds guidance spells this out with a worked example: a 100-pound bag labeled 20-5-10 contains 20 pounds of nitrogen, 5 pounds of phosphate, and 10 pounds of potash, with the remainder as filler or carrier material. The nitrogen in any of these grades traces back to the same natural-gas-based ammonia described above; the phosphate and potash come from mined phosphate rock and potash ore instead.

What Is 15-15-15 Fertilizer Used For?

15-15-15, sometimes called "triple 15," is an equal-ratio blend — 15% nitrogen, 15% phosphate, 15% potash — used where a crop needs all three major nutrients at roughly the same rate rather than a nitrogen-heavy or phosphate-heavy push. It's a common starter and general-purpose blend for row crops, pastures, lawns, and vegetable gardens at the start of a growing season, applied by broadcasting, side-dressing, or fertigation.

What Is 5-10-5 Fertilizer Used For?

5-10-5 is a lower-analysis blend — 5% nitrogen, 10% phosphate, 5% potash — with phosphate weighted twice as heavily as the other two nutrients. That ratio favors root establishment and flower or fruit set over leafy top growth, which is why it's sold for garden vegetables, flowering shrubs, and transplants rather than for lawns or grain crops that need more nitrogen. Because its nutrient percentages are lower than a 15-15-15 or 20-20-20 product, a grower has to apply more pounds of a 5-10-5 bag to deliver the same pounds of actual nutrient.

What Is 14-14-14 Fertilizer Used For?

14-14-14 is best known as the analysis behind Osmocote's classic controlled-release fertilizer, sold in some catalogs as "14 14 14" without dashes. It carries the same equal nitrogen-phosphate-potash ratio as 15-15-15, but the nutrients are coated in a resin that releases them gradually — typically over a 3-to-4-month window from a single application, rather than all at once. That makes it a nursery, greenhouse, and container-plant product: growers use it for potted ornamentals, hanging baskets, and landscape beds where repeat feeding isn't practical.

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Beyond the Ammonia Plant: Gas and Oil Across the Supply Chain

Fertilizer made from natural gas doesn't stop needing energy once it leaves the reactor. Phosphate and potash mines run gas- or diesel-fired dryers and boilers to process raw ore into usable rock and finished potash. Granulation and blending plants use gas or propane for drying and heat-setting granules so they store and spread evenly. On the farm, natural gas and propane fire grain dryers and greenhouse heaters, while diesel remains the dominant fuel for tractors, irrigation pumps in areas without grid power, and the trucks and rail cars that move fertilizer from a Gulf Coast complex to a Midwest co-op.

This is also the point where fertilizer intersects mining rather than chemistry: phosphate and potash are mined minerals, and finding new, economically minable deposits is a materially different problem than running an ammonia plant. That's the gap satellite-based mineral intelligence platforms — including Farmonaut's — are built to close, covered in the section below.

Why Natural Gas Smells Like Rotten Eggs at a Fertilizer Plant

Methane is colorless and odorless, which makes it dangerous to leak undetected — it poses both an explosion risk and an asphyxiation risk in enclosed spaces. The industry fix is odorization: adding a trace sulfur compound, typically a mercaptan, that gives pipeline gas its distinctive rotten-egg smell before it ever reaches a burner tip or reformer. That pungent gas used in fertilizer production is a deliberate safety layer, not a byproduct — it lets workers and neighbors detect a leak by nose long before a gas detector or an explosion would.

• Odorization is standard on pipeline-quality gas delivered to fertilizer plants, grain warehouses, and greenhouses.
• Leak-detection systems and ventilation supplement, rather than replace, the smell itself.
• Ammonia storage and handling carry separate corrosive and toxic-exposure protocols, distinct from the gas-leak risk.
• Facilities are expected to maintain emergency shutoff protocols and scheduled inspection of gas supply lines and equipment.

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Farmonaut: Satellite Intelligence for Phosphate and Potash

Natural gas gets the attention because it drives nitrogen chemistry, but phosphate and potash — the other two numbers on every NPK bag — depend entirely on mining. Locating and defining those deposits the traditional way means ground surveys and exploratory drilling that can take years before a company knows whether a target is worth developing. Farmonaut's satellite-based mineral intelligence platform is built to shorten that front end, using Earth observation and AI-driven analysis to screen for mineralized zones and alteration patterns before a single drill rig mobilizes.

• Faster, non-invasive identification of candidate mineral targets across large land areas
• Global screening capability that doesn't require boots on the ground for initial reconnaissance
• Structured, GIS-compatible reports built for technical and investment due diligence
• Reduced spend on exploratory drilling that a satellite-first screen can rule out early

For the full technical picture, read our guide to satellite-based mineral detection, or go directly to the visualized subsurface product: Satellite Driven 3D Mineral Prospectivity Mapping, which includes drilling angle recommendations and target planning output.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

Natural gas, not oil, is the raw material behind nitrogen fertilizer: it supplies the hydrogen for ammonia and most of the heat that drives the reaction, and CF Industries puts that gas cost at roughly 70% of what it takes to manufacture a ton of ammonia. Oil's role is real but indirect — diesel and bunker fuel move the ore, the product, and the equipment, but they don't become the fertilizer. That gas-to-ammonia link is also why nitrogen prices tracked so closely with the 2026 Strait of Hormuz disruption and the 2022 price spike before it, and it's worth rechecking against current data rather than treating any single number here as permanent: USDA ERS's fertilizer data product, EIA's Henry Hub outlook, and farmdoc daily's weekly nitrogen price updates all refresh on their own schedules, linked throughout this piece.

The phosphate and potash numbers on the same bag are a mining problem, not a chemistry problem, and that's where satellite mineral intelligence earns its place in the same conversation.

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• To get a quote for a mineral detection project, Get Quote
• For project queries or technical questions, Contact Us

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