Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Limited (CUFL), a state-owned fertiliser factory in Anwara upazila of Chattogram, resumed production early Sunday after being closed for seven months.

Factory officials said urea production at CUFL began again at 3:30 am on Sunday.

The plant was shut down due to a gas shortage which caused production losses of about Tk 3 crore daily.

Mizanur Rahman, managing director of CUFL, said that the Karnaphuli Gas Distribution Company Limited (KGDCL) stopped gas supply to the factory on April 11, completely halting production.

Gas supply resumed at 11 am on October 19, and after completing necessary mechanical work.

Urea fertiliser production will continue as long as gas supply remains steady and no mechanical issues arise.

According to CUFL sources, the factory, which fully depends on gas, needs 48 to 52 million cubic feet of gas each day for full-scale production.

Due to past gas shortages and mechanical problems, the factory produced about 2.5 million metric tons of urea fertiliser in the last financial year.

Bangladesh’s annual demand for urea fertiliser is around 2.6 million metric tons.

Of this, CUFL and other factories under the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) produce about 1 million metric tons, while the remaining 1.6 million metric tons are imported at high cost.

The government set up the CUFL factory on October 29, 1987 in Anwara Upazila on the south bank of the Karnaphuli River with technical help from Japan.

The factory originally had a daily production capacity of 1,700 metric tons and an annual capacity of 561,000 metric tons of urea.

It can now produce about 1,200 metric tons of urea daily along with 310,000 metric tons of ammonia each year.