THE giant structures of Bangladesh’s Ashuganj fertiliser factory have stood silent for more than a year, as a natural gas crisis shuts industries, triggers power cuts and sparks protests over fuel shortages.
Machinery once ran round the clock, using natural gas to produce urea that farmers depended on to grow crops for the country’s 170 million people.
Now the state-owned factory, which once employed more than 1,200 people and produced more than 1,000 tonnes of fertilizer a day, is a rusting shell.
Ashuganj closed in March 2025, with the country battered by a gas shortage sparked by a plunge in production owing to underinvestment in ageing fields and exploration, while the US-Iran war has choked imports from the Middle East.
“Only the skeleton of the factory remains,” said Md Bazlur Rashid, 59, who spent his entire working life at Ashuganj, built near the eastern Titas gas field. “It has lost its life”.
The factory is one of six major urea fertiliser plants that have been forced to close down or restrict operations because of gas shortages.
AFP
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