RCF ties up with British Gas for LNG

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, JULY 5. Faced with the problems of gas availability, Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers (RCF) is tying up with British Gas (BG) for meeting its requirements. RCF has been affected by delays in gas supply from the Dabhol regasification plant.

Disclosing this to presspersons here today, Mr. D. K. Varma, Chairman and Managing Director, said RCF's requirement of LNG (liquefied natural gas) was 1.5 million tonnes per annum. BG was also expected to supply 1.7 million tonnes from Gujarat to RCF's Trombay plant.

Mr. Varma said RCF had proposed to expand its urea capacity from 1.5 million tonnes to 2.3 million tonnes, costing Rs. 1,400 crores and the company had a cash reserve of Rs. 800 crores. ICICI, he said, had agreed in principle to finance the project which was likely to come up in three years.

He said the industry was awaiting a national policy on fertilizer. The announcement of the Finance Minister that there would be complete decontrol by 2006 was an important decision, but added that a policy needed to be in place before that. Unviable companies would have to shut down or merge with other companies as they would not have funding for modernisation of their plants.

As for RCF, he said, it was looking forward to the policy as it would help the company which was doing well and once the pricing and distribution controls were removed it could reduce on freight and other marketing costs. Till such a policy was announced, no company would be keen on picking up stakes in companies such as FACT which were going in for disinvestment.

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Section  : Business
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