Staff Reporter :
Amid the volatile situation of the oil market at home and abroad, the government said that Russia has proposed Bangladesh to import crude oil from them.
The government said, they are mulling over the matter because some countries including India and China are purchasing crude oil from Russian despite the sanctions imposed by US and other Western countries.
“We are reviewing the matter how we can purchase oil from Russia. There are certain issues including payments. But we will move forward with this,” State Minister for Power, Energy, and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid said at a workshop at the Bidyut Bhaban in the capital on Monday.
In reply to a query whether the government will decrease oil price, he said, “The global market is still volatile. We cannot take such decision right now. We want to keep the fuel price stable.”
The government imports about 90 percent of its fuel against the demand every year when the rest of the demand is met from local sources.
Last year in November the government increase the price of diesel and kerosene by Tk15 per litre in the name of global market hike. At that time per barrel (158.99 litres) of petroleum was sold at $85.
Right now diesel and kerosene is being sold at Tk 80. In December of the same year, country’s demand for fuel was over 6.3 million tonnes. Despite the Western countries and US sanctions on Russia for the Ukraine war, a number of countries are purchasing oil at a cheap rate.
India has already bought 50 lakh barrel of petroleum. In 2021, the per day oil consumption in India was 4.76 million barrels.
Amid the sanctions, China is also buying oil from Russia to meet its domestic demand.
Experts said if Bangladesh wants to import oil from Russian, it has to disregard the sanctions on Russia.
Meanwhile, Nasrul Hamid in the same programme said the government is also thinking to run trains and other transports by electricity in order to reduce the fuel cost.
“Right now three-wheelers are run by electricity. We have to take initiative to run public transports by electricity to cut the fuel cost,” he added.
About the cyber security in electricity sector, he said, the government is also working on the cyber security to prevent the power management system from the cyber attack.
“The power sector is expanding and state of the art technology is being used. Sophisticated smart grid, enterprise resource planning and online billing system is adding to this sector in phases. With it, cyber risk is increasing,” he added.
The state minister said the government is working on bringing the entire power system under the surveillance of the cyber security.
