The Philippines National Oil Company (PNOC) has placed an 'unsolicited' offer to the government to install oil-carrying pipelines to ensure quick supply of petroleum products to user-ends at a reduced transmission cost, said officials.
"We shall talk further over the PNOC proposals to sort out ways for building the pipelines," Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) chairman AM Badrudduja told the FE Thursday.
He said the PNOC has been invited to talk over the issue in the first week of next month.
Sources said, the PNOC in its initial proposal has expressed its interest to install oil-carrying pipelines at their own costs and charge levy on oil carrying through the pipelines in return.
The government has for the first time come up with a plan for alternative supply lines to meet any sort of exigencies by building pipelines to carry petroleum fuels to main installations to avoid fuel-supply disruptions during blockade or hartals.
Initially, the government is eyeing to build a pipeline to carry A-1 jet fuel to Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) from Kanchan, on the bank of Shitalakhha river, for smooth supply of the fuel for local and international aircraft, a senior official of the Energy and Mineral Resources Division (EMRD) under the ministry of power, energy and mineral resources (MPEMR) told the FE.
Another pipeline has been planned for installation from Chittagong's main oil depot to Narayanganj's Godnail oil depot.
More pipelines will be built in future for ensuring uninterrupted supply of petroleum products across the country, he added.
The BPC has planned to carry out feasibility study first before going ahead with the project works, the BPC chairman said.
Building of a 12-km pipeline is required to carry the fuel from Kanchan to the HSIA storage under one option.
A 250-km pipeline will be required to be built to carry petroleum fuel from Chittagong to Narayanganj.
Earlier, it was never thought of building pipelines to carry petroleum products inside the country.
Tank lorries owned by private sector and the state-run Bangladesh Railways (BR) have been carrying petroleum products from oil depots to different user-ends by road.
Tankers, mostly owned by the private sector, have also been carrying petroleum on various river routes.
The BR supplies petroleum products through rail wagons, said sources.
The government's huge costs could be cut once the pipelines are built, said the BPC chairman.
Currently, the state-run oil marketing and distribution companies have to pay Tk 4,000 to tank lorry owners for a single trip to reach 9,000 litres of A-1 jet fuel to oil storage of the HSIA.
The main airport requires some 700 tonnes of jet fuel to feed local and international airplanes to facilitate flights to and from the country.
Some 1,500 workers will lose their jobs and 250 tank-lorry owners will be affected once the pipelines are built. Currently, there are a total of 7,000 tank lorries in the country and 250 of those carry A-1 jet fuel.
The country requires around 6.0 million tonnes of petroleum products each year to meet a mounting demand from power plants, airports, irrigation, transports and industries.
The PNOC is currently supplying petroleum products to the BPC under a term agreement.
The BPC has a deferred payment mechanism with the PNOC to make payment against fuel purchase from the latter.
mazizur.rahman@outlook.com
