State-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) will introduce auto-gauging system in all of its oil storage tanks for efficient measurement of the product's storage and checking pilferage, a top official said Thursday.
He said all the oil storage tanks across the country would be brought under auto-gauging system in phases.
BPC has already implemented auto-gauging system in some oil storage tanks of its two subsidiary companies -- Meghna Petroleum Ltd and Eastern Refinery Ltd -in the port city of Chittagong.
BPC is now contacting international firms to implement the modern oil measurement system in all its oil storage tanks.
Once the system is implemented, the BPC officials would be able to monitor oil storage positions in the tanks from inside their offices, and take necessary actions, said the BPC top official.
Currently, the BPC applies manual measurement system to quantify oil storages in tanks, which does not reflect the actual storage positions, BPC officials said.
The manual arrangement also helps the unscrupulous people resort to oil pilferage in collusion with some 'corrupt' officials.
The introduction of auto-gauging system will check such pilferages, said the BPC official.
There are widespread allegations of oil pilferage at BPC tankers and smuggling the product to the neighbouring countries, said sources.
The state-run corporation currently has around 894,000 tonnes of oil storage capacity.
BPC is now implementing a plan to increase the oil storage capacity by 31.43 per cent to 1.175 million tonnes within the next couple of years.
The BPC has planned to build 26 new oil storage tanks across the country to meet the mounting demands.
Of the total 26 tanks, 14 new oil storage tanks with a total capacity of 100,000 tonnes would be built by 2014.
The state-run corporation will store the petroleum products diesel, furnace oil, kerosene, octane, petrol in the new storage tanks, said the BPC official.
Bangladesh's oil demand has surged after it launched a drive to increase the number of oil-based power plants in the country from mid-2010 in order to face the impact of fast-depleting domestic natural gas resources. The country commissioned over three dozen new oil-based power plants by 2013.
BPC has estimated to import around 5.9 million tonnes of crude and refined oil during the fiscal year 2013-14.
In FY 2012-13, it imported 5.2 million tonnes of crude and refined oil at a total cost of around $5 billion.
It imported 1.4 million tonnes of crude oil, 2.6 million tonnes of diesel, 900,000 tonnes of furnace oil, and a combined 300,000 tonnes of kerosene, jet fuel, and octane during the fiscal year.
The country's sole refinery, owned by BPC's subsidiary Eastern Refinery Ltd (ERL), produced about 1.4 million tonnes of refined oil during the period.
BPC currently has term deals to import refined oil from Kuwait Petroleum Corp.; Petco, the trading arm of Malaysia's state-owned Petronas; the Philippine National Oil Company; Emirates National Oil Company; Egypt's Middle East Oil Refinery; Maldives National Oil Company; state-owned PetroChina and Indonesia's Bumi Siak Pusako until December 2013.
It also has deals in place to import crude oil from Saudi Aramco and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company up to December 2013.