BVFCL

Brahmaputra Valley Fertilizer Corporation Limited

(A Govt of India Undertaking)

g20-logo

Corporate profile

Brahmaputra Valley Fertlizer Corporation Limited

Corporate Profile

Brahmaputra Valley Fertilizers Corporation Limited (BVFCL) was incorporated on 5th April 2002 after segregation of Namrup units in Assam from Hindustan Fertilizer Corporation Limited (HFCL). BVFCL is under the administrative control of Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Department of Fertilizers with 100% shareholding by the Government of India. It is the first factory of its kind in India to use associated natural gas as basic raw material for producing nitrogenous fertilizer.

The first group of plants named Namrup-I consisting of one Sulphuric Acid (2×125 TPD), one Ammonium Sulphate (3×101 TPD) and one 167 TPD Urea-Ammonia plants commissioned on January 1969. All these plants are now scraped.

Due to increased gas availability in the adjoining oil fields of M/s. Oil India Limited. Government decided to gainfully utilize this associated natural gas by putting up the 2nd Unit of Namrup Fertilizer Plant.  The plant went into commercial production on 1st October 1976. Due to inherent design deficiencies, use of unproven equipments, the capacity utilization was never satisfactory. The plant was put up at a cost of Rs.74.60 crores with annual production capacity of 3,30,000 MT of urea.

The availability of surplus natural gas in the Naharkatia-Moran and Lakwa Oil fields led to the addition of the 3rd Unit of Namrup Fertilizer Plant at a cost of Rs.285.55 crores. The plant went into commercial production in 1987 with annual capacity of 3,85,000 MT of urea. Namrup-III plant was the first in the Country, which used totally indigenous Urea process developed by M/s. Project Development India Limited, (A Govt. of India Undertaking).

The vintage of the plant technology, equipments/machines contributed to the poor performance. Due to various reasons, mainly due to frequent equipment failures caused by obsolete and unproven technology, the plants could not perform as per expectations.

Two presently operating Units, Namrup-II & Namrup-III consists of Ammonia, Urea and Utilities plants. Capacity of Ammonia Plant of Namrup-II is 480 MT of Ammonia per day and urea plant is of 800 MT (400×2) of urea in two streams. Capacity of Ammonia Plant and Urea Plant of Namrup-III are 558 MT per day and 900 MT per day respectively. Two numbers of gas turbine of capacity 15 MW each, generate electricity to meet the power demand and raise steam for utilization in the complex.

The end product – prilled Neem Coated Urea – is sold under the brand name of ‘MUKTA’. The complex is well connected with rail/ road and the product is despatched and sold in the States of North East, West Bengal and Bihar. Both the units are producing 100% Neem Coated Urea as per GoI directive.

Beside urea production, bio-fertilizer and vermicompost are manufactured and sold to farmers through existing dealer network. To increase market acceptability, the company has gone into trading business of seeds, pesticides and fertilizers (MoP, DAP, SSP, Rock Phosphate, and micro nutrient).

As Namrup plants especially Namrup-II plants are old and operate with some well acknowledged disadvantages like plant location, a remote area in the far North-East with known logistic difficulties and plants of obsolete & unproven technology. At present plants requires extensive maintenance for sustained operation to avoid breakdown of equipments and machineries. Original spare parts for their machineries are not easily available. Many a time spare parts are prepared by employing reverse engineering and procuring indigenously. Downtime period due to breakdown gets long as it takes time to get expertise because of remote location of Namrup.

Govt. of India vide its cabinet meeting dated 21-05-2015 decided for setting up of a new brown field Ammonia-Urea complex (Namrup-IV Project) in the existing premises of BVFCL having capacity of 8.646 Lakh MT per annum with the available gas of 1.72 MMSCMD through a JV under Public Private partnership mode (PPP) with equity participation of 48% on nomination basis and the remaining 52% equity through competitive bidding by inviting bids from public/private entities. However, no proposal was received against the competitive bidding.

Further, it was considered for installation of a standard size gas based Ammonia-Urea Plant with a capacity of 12.70 lakh MT/ annum in place of 8.646 lakh MT/annum through nomination route by forming a Joint Venture of CPSEs and Govt. of Assam. In this project, M/s Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers Ltd., Mumbai will be having 52% equity The cabinet note for seeking approval of the proposal for setting up of the plant having capacity of 12.70 Lakh MT/ annum through PSU route (52% to M/s RCF, 26% to M/s OIL, 11% to M/s BVFCL and 11% to the Govt. of Assam) is under consideration of the Department of Fertilizers.

The establishment of the above project is required to be urgently taken-up to ensure optimal utility of natural gas and continue to cater to the need of urea fertilizer in the North-Eastern and eastern part of India