Reportedly, the utility is planning to provide the factories (located in the eastern part of the country) with over one third of the LNG that it is contracted to purchase from the US. This is according to people with knowledge of the matter, Bloomberg reports.
These facilities were reportedly shut down from 1990 onwards as they simply became unviable. GAIL is now planning to connect the facilities with pipelines to provide them with the imported gas.
Bloomberg claims that, in 2016, the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, approved policies that would help to restart the plants. These policies reportedly came as part of a plan to make the country self sufficient in terms of urea production.
Reportedly, Hindustan Urvarak & Rasayan Ltd (which is a joint venture consisting of a number of state-run companies, including Coal India Ltd, NTPC Ltd and Indian Oil Corp.) is investing US$2.7 billion to revive these idled facilities.