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Dhaka set to import fuel from India

The Petroleum Corporation after a two-day meeting with a delegation of the Indian company decided to consider its proposal to supply fuel to Bangladesh and asked it to submit a formal proposal to the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, said sources in the corporation in Dhaka yesterday.

They said the formal proposal of supplying one million tons of High Speed Diesel by the Indian company is likely to be submitted in the first week of December.

The negotiations with the Kuwaiti Petroleum Corporation yielded no results as a three-day meeting ended on November 16 without fixing a premium rate.

The Kuwaiti Corporation authority demanded to increase the premium by 70 cents to 75 cents per barrel while the Bangladeshi Petroleum Corporation authority wanted to increase the premium by 10 to 15 cents, said the sources.

The current premium rate for petroleum from the Kuwaiti Corporation is $4.20 per barrel of diesel, $4.80 per barrel of kerosene and jet fuel and $6.80 per barrel of octane while the current premium rate of the Indian diesel is $3.90 per barrel.

Sources said if BPC and the Indian Oil Company succeed in agreeing on the premium rate and other conditions, diesel might be imported from India.

The Indian oil company delegation also placed a proposal to modernise Eastern Refinery, setting up floating oil depots in Sandwip channel to ensure fuel supply through waterway and setting up a specialised jetty at Mongla Port. Bangladesh imports about 3.5 million tons of fuel from Kuwait and around 2,00,000 tons from the state-run Indian Oil Company in a year under a two-year agreement signed in October 2004.