Bangladesh shuts down CUFL to divert gas supply to power plants

The government shut down Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Limited to divert additional gas to Rauzan power plant.
The CUFL is the third fertiliser plant, after Palash and Urea Fertiliser plants at Ghorashal, which has been shut down in the last one month for diverting additional gas to power plants as the government is grappling with massive power shortage. The country has six fertiliser plants in the public sector and another one is in joint venture.

Officials of the CUFL said they had begun to shut down the plant and would gradually shut down all units. Bakhrabad Gas Systems Limited officials said that they might begin to increase gas supply to the Rauzan power plant once the CUFL closed down half of its units.
The 360 MW Rauzan plant is currently generating around 150-180 MW of electricity because of gas shortage, resulting in severe power outages in the port city. Rauzan has been getting around 40 mm cfpd of gas for the last few months against its demand of 90 mm cfpd. An additional 50 mm cfpd of gas will be supplied to Rauzan after shutdown of the CUFL.

Power officials are hoping to increase electricity generation by 200 MW with the increased gas supply. They said although the full production by the Rauzan power plant would not improve the power situation greatly as the country is facing shortage of around 2,000 MW, but the load-shedding in Chittagong will be reduced.
Most areas of the country have to undergo around 12-18 hours of load-shedding, while the capital undergoes around 6 to 12 hours of outages, as the Power Development Board currently generates around 3,600-3,800 MW of electricity against the demand of around 5,500 MW.

CUFL officials said that the gas authorities had requested them for a "temporary" shutdown of the fertiliser plant. The gas and power authorities also told them that the gas supply to the CUFL would resume "as soon as possible".
Many employees at the CUFL, most of whom are trade union leaders, had agitated against the government decision to shut down the fertiliser plant but they later backtracked as the authorities told them the plant would resume its operation "soon.

A high official of the CUFL said they were not shutting down the plant for the scheduled maintenance as preparations were needed to overhaul the fertiliser plants.
"The fertiliser plant will go for the scheduled maintenance in October-November. They [gas officials] have informed us that gas supply to the plant will resume after rain," he said. Power officials hoped that during the monsoon, water level at Kaptai lake would rise and facilitate increase in power generation at the hydropower plant there.

CUFL officials said they were not happy with the government's decision as shutdown of the factory would create fertiliser crisis and the BCIC would not be able to fulfil its annual production target. Two other fertiliser plants Palash and Urea at Ghorashal were closed down in March to divert gas to power plants, but the move had little impact on power generation.
The prime minister's adviser, Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury told that the government's priority at present was electricity.
"As the Boro season is nearing its end, we think the need for electricity is much more than the need for fertiliser," he said.