Oman was India's biggest supplier of urea in 2011-12. The country provided around one-third of India's total imports of 78.34 lakh tonnes of the fertiliser during the year.

The weighted average cost of India's urea imports in 2011-12 was $481.74 per tonne, which was up 47.1 per cent over the previous year. This translates into total urea imports of $3.77 billion.

The supply from Oman remained around 24 lakh tonnes over the last two years.

In 2010-11, China was the country's biggest urea supplier, accounting for nearly 38 per cent of total imports, according to a supplementary note tabled in the Lok Sabha.

The country's urea imports rose 18.5 per cent during FY12 vis-à-vis the previous fiscal. Most of the imports from Oman were through India's long-term off-take agreement with Oman India Fertiliser Company, a joint venture between Oman Oil Company SAOC, IFFCO and Kribhco.

Iran was our second-biggest supplier, followed by China. Iran accounted for 25.5 per cent of urea supply, while China provided another 16.3 per cent. The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) as a whole fulfilled 14.1 per cent of India's requirement of urea.

The other countries that supplied urea to the country in 2011-12 were Russia and the former Soviet Union, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Indonesia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Lithuania, Vietnam, Romania the UAE and Malaysia.

The CIS and Saudi Arabia have been the only consistent suppliers of urea to India since 2004-05. Oman commenced supplies in 2005-06 and China in the year after. While supply from Oman has gradually ramped up over the years and has been at the same level in the past three years, urea imports from China have been erratic, with an all-time high of 26.35 lakh tonnes in 2007-08.

In the past, India has also sourced the fertiliser from Egypt, Latvia, Libya and Turkey.

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