Opinion: India's next fertiliser goal is securing the gas and coal behind its urea

India has built a lot of urea capacity, but the next step in fertiliser self-reliance is securing the energy and raw materials behind it, argues Dr Siba Prasad Mohanty, managing director of the state-run Hindustan Urvarak & Rasayan Limited (HURL), in a column for Rural Voice. The views are the writer's own.

He sets out the figures. Urea production rose from 22.5 million tonnes in 2014-15 to 30.6 million tonnes in 2024-25, with six new or revived plants adding 7.62 million tonnes of capacity; installed capacity is about 29.1 million tonnes. Yet in 2025-26 demand was about 40 million tonnes against output of about 30 million, and 15-20 percent of demand is still imported.

The weak point, he writes, is natural gas. Urea plants use about 55 MMSCMD of gas, making fertiliser India's largest gas-consuming sector, and about 85 percent of that gas is imported LNG. Pooled gas prices for urea, around $12-14 per MMBtu for five or six years, are now about $18. The 2026 conflict involving Iran and the disruption in the Strait of Hormuz put Gulf LNG under pressure and sent world urea prices sharply higher.

Mohanty describes two routes HURL is exploring. At Barauni in Bihar, under an MoU with NTPC, it plans green urea from green ammonia, made with renewable power, and carbon dioxide captured from NTPC's power plant. At Sindri, under an MoU with Coal India, it is studying urea from gasified domestic coal. Each is envisaged at about 1.27 million tonnes a year, which with a planned gas plant at Gorakhpur would take HURL from about 3.8 million tonnes to 7.62 million tonnes of capacity.

He notes the policy backing: the National Investment Policy for Urea 2026 approved in July, a Department of Fertilizers call for green urea projects, a Rs 37,500 crore coal gasification scheme, and green ammonia bids from Rs 49.75 to Rs 64.74 per kg. Gas, he writes, will stay central, but a mix of gas, coal gasification and green hydrogen would make India's fertiliser, and so its food security, less exposed to world markets.

Source: Rural Voice