The government has adopted the first-ever 'bunkering policy' of the country to ensure smooth supply of fuel to ships carrying both national and foreign flags in the country's two seaports so that the vessels don't get stranded for any exigencies.
Sometimes, a number of ships, both local and foreign, had to remain stranded at the Chittagong port when Jamuna Oil Company Ltd (JOCL) remained closed on different occasions, it was alleged.
Remaining stranded for a day at the port means an additional expense of $20,000-$30,000 for a smaller vessel up to 20,000 DWT (deadweight tonnage) as operational cost, according to a Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) official said.
If shippers increase freight rates, export earnings fall and the prices of imported items go up, say traders about the harms caused in such a situation.
Under the policy, the state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) would provide licences to private firms for supplying bunker fuel through its four distribution companies, BPC Chairman Md Eunusur Rahman told the FE Friday.
The interested firms must have a minimum 500-tonne-capacity barge or fuel tanker and obtain no-objection certificates from the departments of explosives, and environment, and ports and ocean transport department.
Earlier, BPC's subsidiary and one of its four fuel-distribution companies, JOCL, had the monopoly in supplying bunker fuel to shippers as it was the lone authorised agent of BPC for supply of bunker fuel to ocean-going ships at both Chittagong and Mongla ports.
Shippers alleged that they had to suffer to get fuel due to the monopoly as the JOCL remains closed on Fridays and Saturdays, and also during non-working hours, said sources.
The ship operators usually failed to get bunker fuel in emergency cases due to the monopoly of JOCL, they said.
Besides, the ships had to extend requisition for the fuel to the JOCL at least several days ahead of the scheduled day of supply.
The absence of round-the-clock bunkering facilities in the ports was hampering external trade.
Only due to a insufficient bunker facility at least a couple of hundreds ships owned by local and foreign shipping companies that operate on Chittagong-Singapore and Chittagong-Colombo lines regularly were forced to purchase fuel from Singapore and Colombo ports.
"Such forced refuelling cost the country hard-earned foreign currency," a top official of a private ship operator said.
A JOCL official also acknowledged that the sales of bunker fuel by his firm were very low.
He, however, refused to figure out the number of bunker sales in a month.
With the adoption of the policy, private firms would come up and the price would be competitive, traders hoped.
Chittagong port, country's main seaport that handles 90 per cent of the total cargoes, has installed modern equipment and brought down the turn-around time to less than a day from five days a couple of years ago, port officials have said.
The port now handles around 1.5 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of containers and 43 million tonnes of bulk cargoes a year for both export and import, a senior port official said.
Currently, the bunker (furnace oil) price at Chittagong port is $824 per tonne and at Mongla it is $829 per tonne.
Chittagong and Mongla are the country's only two operating seaports.
azizjst@yahoo.com
