Anisul Islam Noor :
The Energy and Mineral Resources Division has ordered the state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) to import furnace oil amounting to 60,000 tonnes in total within this month, a senior BPC official said.
The Energy Division had asked BPC to stop importing furnace oil from January in order to allow the private sector to do the job.
But after five months, the authorities realised that the decision was ‘faulty’, and asked the BPC to resume import of furnace oil.
Sources said, the process of selecting the oil supplier was also ‘flawed’, as the BPC selected Philippines National Oil Company (PNOC) in a week without inviting any tender, said the official.
“BPC had asked us to quote price for supplying three cargoes in June,” said Dr Ejaz Hossain, local agent of the PNOC in Bangladesh.
“We submitted our quotation and were selected to supply the fuel to BPC accordingly,” he added.
This will, however, be BPC’s first furnace oil import in 2016 after deciding to skip import of the fuel from January 2016 and thus leave the trade to private importers.
Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) sought the supply of the fuel to run its furnace oil-fired power plants, which forced BPC to arrange import of the fuel on an urgent basis, the BPC official informed.
The premium on furnace oil import has been fixed at US$15 per tonne to Mean of Platts Arab Gulf (MOPAG) assessments for this fuel.
BPC is now solely responsible for supply of furnace oil to state-run power plants owned by the BPDB, which it arranges from the output of the country’s sole refinery Eastern Refinery Ltd in Chittagong.
Currently the private sector imports about 1.2 million tonnes of furnace oil annually to run power plants.
The pump price of furnace is Tk 42 per litre, whereas the import cost is little over a half around Tk 28 a litre.
The Energy and Mineral Resources Division has ordered the state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) to import furnace oil amounting to 60,000 tonnes in total within this month, a senior BPC official said.
The Energy Division had asked BPC to stop importing furnace oil from January in order to allow the private sector to do the job.
But after five months, the authorities realised that the decision was ‘faulty’, and asked the BPC to resume import of furnace oil.
Sources said, the process of selecting the oil supplier was also ‘flawed’, as the BPC selected Philippines National Oil Company (PNOC) in a week without inviting any tender, said the official.
“BPC had asked us to quote price for supplying three cargoes in June,” said Dr Ejaz Hossain, local agent of the PNOC in Bangladesh.
“We submitted our quotation and were selected to supply the fuel to BPC accordingly,” he added.
This will, however, be BPC’s first furnace oil import in 2016 after deciding to skip import of the fuel from January 2016 and thus leave the trade to private importers.
Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) sought the supply of the fuel to run its furnace oil-fired power plants, which forced BPC to arrange import of the fuel on an urgent basis, the BPC official informed.
The premium on furnace oil import has been fixed at US$15 per tonne to Mean of Platts Arab Gulf (MOPAG) assessments for this fuel.
BPC is now solely responsible for supply of furnace oil to state-run power plants owned by the BPDB, which it arranges from the output of the country’s sole refinery Eastern Refinery Ltd in Chittagong.
Currently the private sector imports about 1.2 million tonnes of furnace oil annually to run power plants.
The pump price of furnace is Tk 42 per litre, whereas the import cost is little over a half around Tk 28 a litre.
