Rabi season 2012-13: urea's demand is around three million tons, National Assembly told

The estimated demand of urea for Rabi 2012-13 is around three million tons reflecting a gap of 0.344 million tons while at present the opening stock of urea is expected to be 0.503 million tons. Federal Parliamentary Secretary for Ministry of National Food Security, Natasha Daultana, told National Assembly during question hour while responding the supplementary questions of the members.
She said that with 12 percent curtailment in gas for urea plant the estimated domestic production of urea will be around 1.90 million tones. She said that about 0.253 million tones of imports, already in pipeline, will make urea availability around 2.656 million tons.
"Around 0.15 to 0.2 million tons of urea is also required as buffer-stock. Hence further import of urea (around 0.4. to 0.5 million tons) will be required to meet the demand, if gas supply of urea plants at SNGPL is not restored during Rabi-2012-13," she added. She said that the DAP availability for upcoming Rabi-2012-13 season seems to be satisfactory.