The government Monday allowed the state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) to import 0.15 million tonnes of refined oil from the Maldives by December, a senior official said.
"The council committee on economic affairs at a meeting today has waived a provision of the Public Procurement Rules (PPR) 2008 to pave the way for importing oil from the Maldives," energy secretary Mohammad Mohsin said Monday.
Presided over by the finance and planning adviser Mirza Azizul Islam, the meeting of the economic affairs committee was held at the Bangladesh Secretariat in the city.
"Now the proposal for oil procurement from the Maldives will be placed before the purchase committee of the government. If the committee approves the proposal, then a contract between the BPC and the state-owned oil company of Maldives will be signed," Mr. Mohsin said.
The BPC will purchase 0.15 million tonnes of petroleum from the Maldives National Oil Company Ltd (MNOC) between October to December next.
Out of the quantity, the MNOC will supply 90,000 tonnes of diesel, 30,000 tonnes of Octane and 30,000 tonnes of Jet A-1 fuel to Bangladesh.
"We've already discussed with the state-owned company of the Maldives about the supply of 0.15 million tonnes of gasoline," said chairman of the BPC Anwarul Karim.
Premium for importing the diesel has been fixed at US$5.19 per barrel, for jet fuel $5.6 per barrel and for octane $7.5 per barrel, an energy ministry official said.
"The Maldives does not produce oil in their own country. It purchases crude from the international markets, refines the same in another country and sells the refined oil to other countries," Mr. Karim said.
Bangladesh, a net oil importing country, has a demand for nearly 3.8 million tonnes of petroleum per year, including 2.8 million tonnes diesel.
Out of the demand, some 1.2 to 1.45 million tonnes are imported in crude form while the rest in refined from.
Bangladesh's main oil supplier is the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), a state-owned company of the Kuwait government. Some other Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, also export oil to Bangladesh.
The major oil exporter KPC supplies about 2.1 million tonnes of oil including 1.6 million tonnes of diesel per year. Bangladesh pays $6.6 as premium for importing a barrel of oil from Kuwait.
