Reliance Industries may build India’s largest fertiliser plant

RIL is planning to set up a fertiliser manufacturing plant having 4 million tonne capacity making it the biggest greenfield fertiliser capacity in India.

Reliance would use the gas from Krishna-Godavari basin as a feed to the fertiliser capacity. Earlier, it was contemplating giving the gas to other fertiliser and power companies but it was marred over pricing.

India has a shortage in fertilisers and imports 5 million tonnes every year. Reliance believes fertiliser companies can bring down fertiliser subsidy by Rs.4000 crore if they switched to natural gas from naphtha. With abundant gas reserves in the KG basin, RIL clearly enjoys an an edge over others.

But before opening this facility, Reliance is seeking clarity on policies and wants pricing controls on fertilisers to be removed. India is currently the third-largest fertiliser producer in the world and hosts of 57 large fertiliser plants.

With Reliance entering into fertiliser manufacturing, one can expect better agricultural production for the country making it self-sufficient in foodgrains. [via]