Two fertiliser plants to get indigenous gas.

ISLAMABAD -- The government has formed a body to allocate indigenous gas to two fertiliser plants, namely Fatima Fertiliser Company Limited (FFCL) and Agritech Limited, to produce urea locally in order to reduce reliance on imports.

The two fertiliser plants did not previously have allocation of indigenous gas and had, therefore, been running on LNG when the government demanded increased production of urea to meet local demand.

The government had been providing LNG at discounted rates to the two fertiliser plants to cut the cost of urea production, however, the country has been facing a shortage of LNG due to unavailability of product in the international market in wake of the Russia-Ukraine war. Sources say that the matter of allocating indigenous gas to these fertiliser plants was tabled in a recent meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet.

Earlier, the Ministry of National Food Security and Research had submitted a summary regarding 'Urea fertiliser requirement for calendar year 2023.' The ECC directed that a committee be constituted under the chairmanship of former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to determine viable options of providing indigenous gas to the said fertiliser plants.

The committee will be comprised of the minister of state for petroleum and secretaries of the Petroleum Division, Power Division, Ministry of Industries and Production, and the Ministry of National Food Security and Research.

The committee will deliberate on the issue of supply of indigenous system gas to the two plants and submit viable recommendations thereon for ECC's consideration.

In July last year, the cabinet discussed the issue of supplying domestic gas to fertiliser plants, however, due to opposition from the cabinet members, the matter was referred to the Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCoE) for further consideration.

The Petroleum Division had proposed that 68mmcfd gas be allocated from the Mari (Shallow) Gas...