ABOUT FCIL & Its Revival – Background
In 1971, The Fertilizer Corporation of India Ltd. (FCIL), set up Talcher Unit over an area of 902 acre in the district of Angul, Odisha which is located about 126 km away from Bhubaneswar to produce urea using coal as feed stock. Licensor for the Coal gasification was M/s Krupp Koppers, Germany and for Ammonia and Urea units Ammonia synthesis, M/s Tecnimont, Italy.
Commercial Production of Ammonia and Urea commenced on 01.11.1980 with Ammonia and Urea production capacity of 900 and 1500 Tons per day respectively. However due to frequent power restriction, obsolete and mismatch of technology and precarious steam balance the plant could not be sustained. The Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) declared the FCIL sick in 1992 and in 2002 Government of India initiated actions to close the company.
Due to shortage of domestic Urea and availability of large land banks, infrastructure and tied-up rail, water & electricity in the units of FCIL, GoI in the year 2007 decided to revive all units of FCIL. Government of India approved Policy for new Investments in the Urea Sector in September 2008 and constituted Empowered Committee of Secretaries (ECOS) in October 2008 with the mandate to evaluate all options of revival of closed units of FCIL/HFCL and to make suitable recommendations for consideration of the Government.In August, 2011, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) had approved the Draft Rehabilitation Scheme (DRS) for revival of all the Units of FCIL and HFCL. DRS envisaged revival of Talcher Unit by the consortium of M/s.Rashtriya Chemical & Fertilizers Limited (RCF), M/s Coal India Limited (CIL) and M/s GAIL (India) Ltd. (GAIL).
About Talcher Fertilizers Ltd. (TFL)
The “Talcher Fertilizers Limited” (TFL), a consortium of four state-run companies GAIL, CIL, RCF and FCIL was established in December 2014 to revive the Talcher unit. Joint Venture Company was incorporated on 27.10.2015 with contributing equity of GAIL, CIL and RCF being 31.85% each while FCIL retaining 4.45% equity. Projects & Development India Limited (PDIL) is the PMC for the project.
Promoters
a) GAIL (INDIA) LIMITED.
GAIL (India) Ltd. is a ‘Maharatna’ Company is a Central Government undertaking under Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas (MoP&NG). GAIL was incorporated in August 1984. GAIL has built a large network of Natural Gas pipelines covering over 11,000 km; two LPG Pipelines covering more than 2,000 km; six Gas Processing plants for production of LPG and other liquid hydrocarbons, with a combined production capacity of 1.39 MMTPA, and a gas based integrated petrochemical plant of 810,000 TPA. GAIL is laying the 2610 km long Jagdishpur-Haldia-Bokaro-Dhamra Pipeline Project for developing Natural Gas Infrastructure in the States of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal as a part of “PRADHAN MANTRI URJA GANGA PIPELINE PROJECT”.
b) Coal India limited (CIL)
Coal India Limited (CIL) is a ‘Maharatna’ Company under Ministry of Coal. It was formed in November, 1975 as a holding company to manage the coal mines nationalised in between 1971 to 1973, with 78.85% of its equity, owned by Government of India and is world’s largest hard coal producing company. It has core competence across the entire gamut of the coal business value chain. The business domain includes exploration, planning and design of mines, coal mining operations, coal beneficiation and marketing CIL meets 42% of the nation’s primary energy demand and caters 81% of the nation’s coal requirement.
c) Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers Ltd. (RCF)
Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers Limited (RCF) is a ‘Mini-Ratna’ Public Sector Undertaking under the administrative control of Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers. RCF is engaged in manufacture and marketing of fertilizers and industrial chemicals. The company was carved out of the erstwhile Fertilizer Corporation of India Ltd at the time of reorganisation way back in the year 1978. Presently, RCF is having two production facilities, one at Trombay in Mumbai and the other at Thal in Alibag city which is 100 km from Mumbai. RCF manufactures Ammonia, Urea and Chemicals like Methanol, Nitric Acid, Sulphuric Acid, Phosphoric Acid and Nitro Phosphate fertilizers of different composition.
d) Fertilizer Corporation of India Ltd. (FCIL)
Fertilizer Corporation of India Ltd. (FCIL) is a Central Government undertaking under the administrative control of Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers. Due to non-viability of the operation of fertilizer unit, Government of India decided to close the fertilizer plants. The net worth of the company has become negative and the corporation was referred to BIFR in April 1992 under the sick Industrial Companies (Special provision under Act 1985).