Supply of Urea by OMIFCO

Government of India (GOI) has entered into a long Term Urea Off Take Agreement (UOTA) with OMIFCO to lift its entire production of urea in the first fifteen years of its production. The commercial production of the company commenced w.e.f.14th July 2005. Import of urea for direct agriculture use is made on Government account to bridge the gap between assessed demand and indigenous production. At present around 8 million MT of urea is being imported per annum on Government account. The rated capacity of OMIFCO plant is 1.652 million MTs granular urea per annum. The present annual production of the company is around 2 million MT. The production up to the rated capacity is being imported at the Long Term Price (LTP) of granular urea while the production in excess of rated capacity in any year is imported at 5% discount over the published prices of granular urea in the international journals. The LTP of granular urea is much cheaper in comparison of the prevailing prices in the international market. The current LTP of granular urea is US$135.68 per MT FOB as against the latest published FMB price of US$ 300 to 312 per MT FOB. The imports from OMIFCO are resulting into as great savings to the Government exchequer on account of subsidy on fertilisers. Since the UOTA with OMIFCO is valid upto July 2020, it will certainly contribute in meeting part of the local demand of urea during the Twelfth Five Year Plan period.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers, Shri Srikant Kumar Jena in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.

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DNM/NSK/DB