Bangladesh to buy fuel oil from Maldives

State-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) will buy 60,000 tonnes of fuel oil from Maldives National Oil Company as part of efforts to meet the country's growing demand, a senior BPC official said Monday, reports Reuters. The Maldives company will supply the fuel oil during July-December at a premium of $32 a tonne to Singapore spot quotes, the official said, adding that BPC had paid the same premium to it for a similar quantity in the first half of this year. Bangladesh is buying fuel oil and diesel in large quantities to ease its troubled electricity crisis as it faces a severe natural gas shortage. Earlier this month, BPC concluded negotiations with Petronas, PetroChina and Philippines National Oil Company (PNOC), and it is receiving supplies from Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC), Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC), Egypt's Middle East Oil Refinery (Midor) and Vietnam's Petrolimex. BPC bought about 230,000 tonnes of fuel oil in the first half of the year and has an expected requirement of up to 700,000 tonnes for the second half, the official said. Meanwhile, Bangladesh expects offers from China's state-owned Zhen Hua Oil Company, which is vying to supply fuels to the country. Executives from Zhen Hua last week visited Dhaka to discuss operational details in the Beijing-based firm's first move to join the growing list of national oil companies supplying oil products to Bangladesh.