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State-owned gas utility Gail India Ltd may take five to 10 per cent stake in Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizer Ltd's (RCF) urea and ammonium nitrate plant at Talcher in Odisha.
Originally, RCF, Gail and Coal India Ltd came together for a Rs 10,000-crore project to convert coal in Talcher mines into gas and then use it as feedstock for manufacturing urea and power.
"Talks are going on with Gail, and we would like them to be the part of the project," RCF Chairman and Managing Director R G Rajan said. However, Gail has not been keen on being part of the urea and ammonium nitrate plant as fertiliser manufacturing is not its core business. It wants to be restricted to upstream element of the project, that is, coal gasification.
Gail wants to take a minimum 50 per cent stake in the Rs 3,000-crore upstream coal-gasification project that will produce enough natural gas to not just fire the fertiliser plant but also a captive power plant. Also, the captive power plant would generate surplus electricity that would be sold to the grid.
