FCIL inks MoU with CIL, GAIL and RCF to revive Talcher urea plant

Fertilizer Corporation of India Ltd (FCIL) has signed an MoU with Coal India Ltd (CIL), GAIL India Ltd and Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers Ltd (RCF) for revival of Talcher urea plant in Odisha, according to a PIB press release. The MoU was signed in presence of Veerapa Moily, Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas; Sriprakash Jaiswal , Minister of Coal; and Srikant Kumar Jena, Minister of State (I/C) for Chemicals and Fertilizers, Statistics & PI.
 
Jena stated that the Talcher Unit of FCIL is being revived by a consortium of RCF, CIL, GAIL & FCIL at an estimated cost of about Rs 8,000 crore. He said that it is a unique project being setup on coal gasification for production of 1.2 MTPA urea and ammonium nitrate. CIL will supply about 5 million tonne per annum of coal for this project.
 
Jena informed that it has been decided to form two separate joint venture (JV) companies for the proposed revival. JV-1 would take up upstream coal gasification and gas purification with GAIL having major stake. JV-2 would take up down-stream urea-cum-ammonium nitrate complex & off-sites, including power plant & coal washery and will have major stakes of RCF & CIL with minor stake by FCIL & GAIL, the Minister added.
 
FCIL, a multi-unit fertiliser PSU under the Department of Fertilizer (DoF) having units Sindri, Talcher, Ramagundam, Gorakhpur & Korba was closed in September 2002. However, the revival process was started by the Government and the Cabinet, in principle, approved the proposal for revival of closed units of FCIL in April 2007. In October 2008, the Cabinet approved the constitution of an Empowered Committee of Secretaries (ECOS) with the mandate to evaluate all options for revival of closed units of FCIL. In August 2011, the Draft Rehabilitation Scheme (DRS) for revival of all the Units of FCIL, including Talcher Fertilizer Plant was approved by CCEA.
 
Recently, CCEA approved waiver of Government of India loan and interest of about Rs 11,000 crores on FCIL and subsequently FCIL was de-registered from BIFR.
 
The pre-project activities for revival of Talcher project have already started. GAIL has already floated tender for pre-qualification of coal-gas technology supplier. RCF has also floated tender calling for LSTK bids for ammonia-urea plant. The project will not only reduce the dependence on imported urea but shall also utilise indigenously available feedstock. The project is expected to be commissioned by 2017.