Urea fertilizer production at Chittagong Urea Fertilizer Limited (CUFL) has been halted again after operating for just two days, following a technical fault at the plant.
Production resumed at the state-owned fertilizer factory on September 15 after a six-month shutdown caused by a gas supply crisis. However, operations were suspended again at around 4am on Thursday, 17 September, after a seal leak was detected in the RC pump.
Uttam Chowdhury, Head of the Production Department at CUFL, confirmed that production was stopped due to the mechanical problem.
“Production had to be suspended after a seal leak was detected in the RC pump. Maintenance work is underway to repair the fault,” he said.
The plant had remained out of operation for six consecutive months amid inadequate gas supplies. Following the restoration of gas supply on 25 August, maintenance activities began at the factory in preparation for restarting production.
After the maintenance work, urea production resumed at around 5am on 15 September. The plant continued operations for nearly two days before the latest technical fault forced another shutdown.
CUFL has a production capacity of around 1,100 metric tonnes of urea per day when operating at full capacity. The latest disruption has raised concerns about the stability of production at the plant, which has already faced prolonged shutdowns due to the gas crisis.
The plant requires around 48–52 million cubic feet of gas per day to operate at full capacity. As CUFL is entirely dependent on natural gas as its feedstock and fuel, any significant disruption in gas supply forces the plant to suspend production.
According to CUFL sources, the factory was established by the government at Rangadia in Anwara Upazila on 29 October, 1987, with technical assistance from Japan. Located on the southern bank of the Karnaphuli River, the plant initially had a daily production capacity of 1,700 metric tonnes of urea and an annual capacity of 561,000 tonnes.
Its effective production capacity has since declined, with the plant currently capable of producing approximately 1,100 metric tonnes of urea per day when fully operational.
