Govt to buy 54 lakh tonnes of fuel oil

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) today granted permission to Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) to import 54 lakh tonnes of fuel oil next year in its bid to secure supply of the key commodity amid the Ukraine-Russia war and geopolitical tension.

Of the amount, the state-run BPC, the sole petroleum importer and the distributor, will buy 38.6 lakh tonnes of refined oil directly under the state-to-state arrangement.

The rest 16 lakh tonnes will be imported in crude form from Saudi Aramco and The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, Abu Dhabi, according to a decision of the committee.

During the January-June period of this year, the BPC imported 7.91 lakh tonnes of crude oil and 27.9 lakh tonnes of refined oil mainly diesel and oil namely jet fuel, octane, and furnace oil.

Bangladesh's transport sector is the main user of petroleum accounting for 63 per cent of the total annual consumption of oil followed by irrigation, electricity generation, and the industrial sector, according to BPC data.

Bangladesh used roughly 65 lakh tonnes of petroleum annually and imported fuel accounts for 90 per cent the total requirement.