MRPL keen to buy MCF

There has been no answer from Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilisers Limited (MCF) to the interest shown by Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL), a subsidiary of ONGC, in buying the fertilizer plant.

“We have not seen any response (from MCF) as of now,” Uttam Kumar Basu, Managing Director, MRPL, told The Hindu . He declined to discuss the price as it was “highly sensitive”.

Mr. Basu said that MRPL was interested in taking over MCF as “there are certain synergies between the refinery and the fertilizer plant.” The synergy is in terms of raw material, exchange of products and with respect to marketing, logistics and despatch. There would be “cost reduction and a bit of value addition,” he said. For example, while raw material such as naphtha and sulphur (inputs for fertilizer production) were being produced at MRPL, there was scope for producing carbon dioxide. Definitely, a plant for carbon dioxide production could be envisaged, he said.

P. P. Upadhya, Director (Technical), told this correspondent that there were advantages that MRPL had over its rivals eyeing the fertilizer plant. The main advantage was that MRPL's main product was naphtha feedstock, an input for producing fertilizer. “Raw material I can give for fertilizers, that's the main advantage,” he said.

Mr. Upadhya said that MRPL's production of naphtha was enough for multiples of the quantity used by MCF. He said, “My (MRPL's) naphtha production can support five to six MCFs.”

The other advantage is proximity of MRPL to the MCF plant in Mangalore's Panambur area.