Bangladesh will import 1.3 million tonnes of crude petroleum oil from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in the current calendar year, reports UNB.
Of the total amount, 700,000tonnes crude oil will come from Saudi Arabia while the remaining 600,000tonnes will be procured from the UAE.
Cabinet Purchase Committee Wednesday approved a proposal of the Energy Ministry involving an approximate cost of US$ 1.129 million in this regard.
The purchase body approved a total of 12 proposals, including four ones for construction of power distribution lines for rural electrification.
The approval was given at a meeting of the Cabinet body held with Finance Minister AMA Muhith in the chair.
The whole crude petroleum will be imported under the government-to-government agreements and the petroleum will be coming in phases as per the country's needs.
As per the proposal, the state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) will buy 700,000tonnes Arabian light crude (ALC) oil from the Saudi state-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) at an estimated cost of US$ 628.542 million.
On the other hand, the BPC will import 600,000 tonnes of Murban crude oil from UAE state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) at a cost of US$ 564.018 million.
After import, all the crude petroleum will be refined at the Bangladesh state-owned Eastern Refinery plant in Chittagong.
Although the price of petroleum drastically declined in recent months on the global market and now stays at $ 55 per barrel, the cost of Bangladesh's import was estimated to be $ 117.88 per barrel as FOB price for the period from January-June 2015 and $ 127.88 per barrel for July-December period.
The estimation was made including vessel charge, service charge, lighterage charge and VAT and taxes.
The Cabinet body also approved number of tender proposals of the Rural Electrification Board (REB) to procure conductors and insulators (power cables) for a total of 18-km lines and also for 13,000 distribution transformers under its "1.8 million consumer connection through rural expansion" project.
The companies which won contracts for supply of conductors and insulators include BRB Cables, BNT Cables, SBS Cables while the distribution transformer supplying companies are TS Transformers, Confidence Electric Ltd, TS Transformers and Techno Ventures Ltd.
The Cabinet committee approved a proposal of Bangladesh Hi-tech Park Authority for construction of steel structure of the 14-storey building at a cost of Tk 779.8 million for setting up a software technology park in Jessore. SEL-BPL joint venture won the contract.
