Five fertiliser factories face closure this summer

---

M Azizur Rahman
The government is all set to shut fertliser factories once again to divert gas to power plants aiming to boost electricity generation and to cope with the summer's peak demand season.
This time the energy ministry has decided to shut five fertliser factories on 'emergency' basis to ease the mounting electricity demand with the scorching summer approaching, a senior ministry official has said.
Last year, the government closed down three fertiliser factories in phases to run the gas-fired power plants to increase overall electricity supply across the country.
The energy ministry at a meeting Monday decided to shut the state-owned Urea Fertilizer Fertiliser Factory (UFFG), Polash Urea Fertiliser Factory (PUFF), Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Ltd ( CUFL) and Jamuna Fertiliser Company Ltd (JFCL) during the peak summer season.
It also decided to stop gas supplies to multinational Karnaphuli Fertiliser Company Ltd (KAFCO) during the peak summer season, the senior energy ministry official told the FE.
State-owned Petrobangla can save around 110 million cubic feet (mmcfd) of gas daily by stopping gas to these fertiliser factories.
Some 400 megawatts (mw) to 500 mw of additional electricity could be produced with the saved gas to meet the mounting electricity demand across the country, said the official.
The energy ministry has prioritised electricity generation from the gas-fired Rauzan 360 mw power plant, Shikalbaha 40 mw plant and three units at Baghhabari totalling 270 mw-capacity with the saved gas.
"All these fertiliser factories will be temporarily closed by next 72 hours to divert gas to power plants," Petrobangla chairman Dr Hossain Monsur told the FE Monday.
He said the government has decided to shut the fertiliser factories under 'emergency situation' to meet the mounting summer demand along with irrigation requirement.
The government decision to close the fertiliser factories came at a time when the country was passing through unprecedented load shedding with frequent outages.
Gas supply shortage has already affected severely the industrial output. To deal with the gas supply crunch Petrobangla has suspended new gas supply connections.
It has recently introduced the first-ever staggered holidays in different industrial zones to cope with rising gas demand.
The government last year shut three fertliser factories -- UFFL, PUFF and the CUFL - diverting gas to power plants to generate electricity for meeting peak summer demand including that of irrigation.
On closure of the five fertiliser fertiliser factories the country's power plants would get around 880 mmcfd of gas, up from the current 770 mmcfd of gas, it was learnt.
But the overall gas demand of the country's power plants is around 990 mmcfd.