CUFL resumes production after nine months

CHATTOGRAM, Sept 15: The Chittagong Urea Fertilizer Ltd (CUFL) resumed urea production with the supply of gas after nine months.

A senior official at the CUFL said the factory resumed fertiliser production as the Karnaphuli Gas

Distribution Co (KGDC) supplied 45 million cubic feet of gas, thanks to the gas supply from the imported LNG (liquefied natural gas).

The gas supply to the CUFL actually started on September 04 but the production of fertiliser started from Friday as the machinery took 10 days for start-up, he said.

He said the machinery, mostly age-old, ran dry for lack of gas for more than nine months and due to suspension of operational activities.

The plant's daily urea production stood at 1,200 to 1,300 metric tonnes (MTs) at the time of last gas supply in November, 2017 against its usual production capacity of 1700 MTs.

Now the CUFL authority hopes that it will get the required gas supply without any further disruption to run the plant that has already incurred a substantial financial loss.

The CUFL was set up in 1987 at Rangadia of Anwara opposite the Chattogram Port on the other bank of the Karnaphuli river with the financial and technical support of Japan with an annual production capacity of 0.561 million MTs.

Managing Director of the Karnaphuli Gas Distribution Co Engineer Khayez Ahmed Majumder said they are supplying 45 mmcfd of gas to the CUFL and the same volume of gas to the KAFCO (Karnaphuli Fertilizer Co) from both the national grid and the imported LNG.

The KGDC has also started supplying gas to the gas-fuelled power plants at Raozan and Shikalbaha., he said.

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