New Delhi: Fertilizer plants consume about 42.25 million standard cubic meters per day of gas for manufacture of subsidised urea. Out of this, 26.50 mmscmd comes from domestic fields and the rest 15.75 mmscmd is imported liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The Oil Ministry moved a proposal to pool or average out prices of domestic natural gas and imported LNG used by fertilizer plants to make the cost of fuel uniform and affordable. The USD 4.2 per million British thermal unit price of domestic gas is about one-third of cost of LNG.
The cost of gas, which is the most important component for production of urea, varies from plant to plant owing to differential rates at which imported LNG is contracted as well as cost of transportation.
Sources said the proposal moved for inter-ministerial consultations, before being put up to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), calls for averaging of different rates of domestic and imported gas to ensure supply of fuel to all urea plants at a uniform delivery cost.
