The fertilizer industry has been given priority in gas allocation from the Andhra offshore field and will be provided with 15 mcmd (million cubic metres per day) to over come scarcity in the sector.
“It is found that modernisation of fertilizer industry is impeded by lack of gas pipeline connectivity to existing naphtha and FO/LSHS (industrial fuels) based urea units in the country. There has hardly been any progress towards providing pipeline connectivity,” Alagiri said.
“In view of the increased demand-production gap of urea in the country and the new investment policy for urea announced by the government in 2008, many fertilizer companies have shown serious interest towards expansion of their existing gas-based urea units,” he said.
Gas and pipelines are needed to ship feedstock to reopen units in Bihar’s Barauni, Bengal’s Durgapur and Ramagundam in Andhra Pradesh.
