Urea production has resumed at the state-owned Chittagong Urea Fertilizer Limited (CUFL) in Anwara, Chattogram. The plant restarted at about 3am on Friday, 13 November, after mechanical faults had kept it shut for about 27 days.
Managing director Mizanur Rahman confirmed the restart. Each day the plant stands idle costs an average of about Tk 3 crore in lost output, he said. It is now producing more than 1,000 tonnes of urea every 24 hours, worth about Tk 4.5 crore at market prices.
Gas is not a problem at present, the managing director said: the plant is receiving as much as it needs. Urea is made from liquid ammonia and carbon dioxide, both produced from natural gas.
The plant has stopped repeatedly this year. After about six months without production because of a gas shortage, it restarted on 15 September, only to halt with a mechanical fault within 48 hours. It came back 12 days later, at the end of September, then stopped again on the night of 17 October.
CUFL belongs to the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) and stands at Rangadia in Anwara, at the mouth of the Karnaphuli river. It began trial production on 29 October 1987 and commercial production in February 1988. Its machinery is close to 40 years old and develops faults from time to time; once it stops, finding and repairing the fault takes a long time, and a long shutdown damages parts and leaves pipelines rusting and leaking.
The plant's 170-metre jetty also unloads phosphoric acid for the neighbouring DAP fertiliser plant (DAPFCL), and a local jetty sends fertiliser by small lighter vessels to other parts of the country. For all the stoppages caused by gas shortages and breakdowns, the plant remains an important supplier of fertiliser to the country's farms.
This report is based on a dispatch by Banglanews24's senior correspondent in Chattogram.
Source: Banglanews24
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