Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) has floated international tender inviting bids from interested global players to supply 1.5 million tonnes of diesel and jet fuel.
Officials said, the state-owned entity reintroduced the tendering system for import of petroleum products after a 15-year pause.
“An international tender has been floated inviting bids from interested global suppliers to supply 1.5 million tonnes of diesel and jet fuel,” BPC Chairman A M Badrudduja told The New Nation on Sunday.
He added: BPC came up with the move in line with a directive from the Energy Ministry.
The BPC Chairman also said that the corporation will also continue the current system of direct term deals with international suppliers along with purchasing fuel oil through the international tender. “The main objective for purchasing petroleum products through tender is to verify whether the BPC can secure fuel oil at lower prices compared with the term deals,” said Badrudduja, adding, “This would also help bring more transparency to BPC’s purchase of petroleum products.”
BPC had imported petroleum products through tenders since its inception in 1977 until 2000. But BPC has switched over to striking direct term deals as it faced numerous delays in the delivery of cargoes supplied through its previous tender system.
“Also, BPC found some of the oil products supplied through the previous tender system substandard,” Badrudduja said.
BPC’s fuel oil import stood at 5.81 million tonnes in 2015, up 7.50 per cent over the previous calendar year.
Of the imports, BPC requires 1.4 million tonnes of crude oil and the remaining is refined petroleum products like diesel, furnace oil, jet fuel and octane.
