AgribusinessTwo days after it resumed urea production on Friday, the Jamuna fertiliser factory in Jamalpur halted again at 5 am on Sunday when Petrobangla and Titas cut its gas; it produced 1,600 tonnes in those two days.
BCIC's Ashuganj urea factory, shut by the gas shortage, could produce 528,000 tonnes a year if it receives about 56 million cubic feet of gas a day without interruption, cutting fertiliser imports and foreign-currency spending, people in the sector say.
Gas returned on 20 September but at 27-28 MMCF the pressure was too low; with enough pressure the plant restarted late on Monday night and expects 1,200 to 1,400 tonnes of urea a day.
OpinionJournalist and columnist Hasan Mamun writes in Samakal that falling domestic gas output has deepened reliance on LNG and LPG imports; fertiliser factories cannot run properly for want of gas, with the input-hungry boro season approaching.
Titas resumed gas supply on Saturday night to one of the country's largest urea plants at Tarakandi in Jamalpur, shut since 15 February; acting manager Delwar Hossain says it will take at least 15 days to bring the plant back into production.
A seal leak in the RC pump and low gas pressure mean no production before Saturday; the 1,100-tonne-a-day factory made only 65,000 tonnes of urea in all of 2025-26.
The Prime Minister's adviser Dr Zahed Ur Rahman says Bangladesh has ample fertiliser stocks, with local problems down to distribution, and set out steps to ease the gas and power crunch.
