India to start supplying diesel to Bangladesh

India will start supplying furnace oil (diesel) to Bangladesh soon. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bangladesh visit is set to witness the implementation of a long pending demand of diesel export from India to Bangladesh. “We will supply diesel from West Bengal to Bangladesh,” said India’s Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar before leaving New Delhi. India has already done a feasibility study on exporting diesel to its eastern neighbour through a pipeline from Siliguri in West Bengal (Pashchimbanga) to Parbatipur in northern Bangladesh. This is part of India’s plan to develop its northeast as the gateway for the proposed economic corridor with Bangladesh. Bharat Petrolium Corporation Limited’s subsidiary Numaligarh Refinery Limited, which is based in Assam, has already proposed to export about 1 million tonne of diesel per year from its refinery “if the Rs2 billion pipeline project finally works out.” Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) in 2003-2004 made a deal with Bangladesh for exporting 200,000 tonnes of diesel a year. The deal, however, did not go through over pricing issues. Earlier, the IOC had also offered to revamp the two million-tonne Chittagong refinery and construct a fuel import terminal at Mongla. Bangladesh imports more than 1.6 million tonnes of petroleum products from Kuwait, according to a news agency.