Government's petroleum agency began negotiations with term suppliers of petroleum to import around 1.30 million tonnes of diesel, jet fuel, furnace oil and octane for the first half of next year.
Officials said the state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) would fix premium rates to import the refined petroleum products from the suppliers during the January-June (H1) period of 2018.
The BPC imports refined petroleum products under both term deals and open tendering in line with a government decision made last year.
Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) is a major term supplier of refined petroleum to Bangladesh.
Other term suppliers include Malaysia's Petco Trading Labuan Company, Emirates National Oil Company, PetroChina Singapore, Chinese Zhenhua Oil Company Ltd, Petrolimex Singapore of Vietnam, Philippine National Oil Corporation, Indonesia's Bumi Siak Pusako, and Oman Trading International.
Under tendering system the BPC is expected to import 1.27 million tonnes of refined petroleum products including diesel, jet fuel, furnace oil and octane from Unipec Singapore Pte and Vitol Asia during the period as they submitted the best bids.
This would be the fourth time in a row that Unipec and Vitol would be supplying the fuels to BPC through open tendering since February 2016, said a BPC official.
Apart from Unipec and Vitol, five other international firms -- PetroChina, Emirates National Oil Company, Trafigura, Glencore and Gunvor--also submitted bids for supplying the refined oils.
Tender was closed on Nov 13 and the offer validity would be for 75 days until January 26, 2018.
The BPC official said Unipec offered the best bid to supply 780,000-980,000 tonnes of diesel and 100,000 tonnes of jet fuel combined into the BPC's tendering under two groups each having options to supply 390,000-490,000 tonnes of diesel and 50,000 tonnes of jet fuel.
Vitol Asia's offer was best for supply of 120,000-160,000 tonnes of furnace oil and 30,000 tonnes octane under the BPC tendering.
Unipec has offered to supply 390,000-490,000 tonnes of diesel at a premium of $2.76 per barrel to Mean of Platts Arab Gulf (MOPAG) diesel assessments on a cost-and-freight (CFR) basis to Chittagong for the H1 2018 supplies.
It offered to supply similar quantity, 390,000-490,000 tonnes, of diesel at a premium of $2.42 per barrel.
For a combined volume of 100,000 tonnes of jet-fuel supply under two groups, Unipec offered the best bid at a premium of $3.34 per barrel to MOPAG jet fuel assessments on CFR basis for H1 2018 supplies. Vitol Asia has offered the best bid to supply 120,000-160,000 tonnes of furnace oil at a premium of $31.29 per tonne to MOPAG and 30,000 tonnes of octane at a premium of $4.47 per barrel to MOPAG octane assessments on CFR basis for H1 2018.
BPC is currently importing up to 1.06 million tonnes of diesel, jet fuel and furnace oil over July-December 2017 delivery into Chittagong on CFR basis under tendering system from Unipec and Vitol.
"The BPC has already sent our bid-evaluation report to the board, from where it will go to the cabinet committee on government purchase for approval finally awarding deals to the suppliers," said the official.
He added: the board of the petroleum corporation and the cabinet committee on government purchase usually honour bid-evaluation committee in respect of oil-supply issues.
BPC imported 15,000 tonnes of octane from PT Bumi Siak Pusako Zapin (BSP) of Indonesia during March 2017 abruptly with the rise in local demand.
Bangladesh didn't have to import gasoline in the past two years as domestic production was enough to meet the local demand.
BPC imported around 1.175 million tonnes of diesel, jet fuel and furnace oil combined under its second open tendering system during January-June 2017 from Unipec and Vitol.
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