Fuel oil imports are increasing again. Additional expenditure on oil import will be Tk 29 crore in six months

Dhaka Times Report. According to the related sources, there will be additional expenditure on the import of fuel oil. Every year the government is giving subsidy in this energy sector.

It is known that for the first six months of this year, the government is spending an additional 29.5 crore rupees on importing four and a half lakh tons of fuel oil. Officials said that the increased cost is due to the increase in the premium of crude and refined fuel oil in the world, mainly due to political unrest in the oil-rich countries of the Middle East and South Africa. The government will spend 2 thousand 467 crores to buy this amount of fuel oil. In this regard, the matter of import of fuel oil will be presented to the Cabinet Committee on Purchase for approval on March 4, the source said.

In the case of fuel oil import, different premiums are fixed for all types of fuel oil. This premium is determined on the basis of bilateral negotiations at the state level. In case of fuel oil premium is determined by calculating insurance, suppliers credit, safe transportation charges. It is known that 80,000 metric tons of diesel and 16,000 metric tons of octane fuel oil are being purchased for the first six months of this year from Petro China International (Singapore) Private Limited. Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) officials held a meeting with Petro China delegation visiting Bangladesh on December 19 last year. In the meeting, the premium on diesel was fixed at USD 3.50 per barrel. Which in 2011 was 3.30 USD. Similarly, the premium for octane is fixed at 7.20 USD. Which in 2011 was 7.5 US dollars.

Sources said that due to higher premiums, the cost of buying 96 thousand metric tons of diesel and octane fuel oil in the first six months of this year has increased by Tk 116.6890 thousand more than in the last six months of last year. The total cost will be 795 crore 10 lakh taka. The matter was approved in the 812th board meeting of BPC held on January 19. For the first six months of this year, 260,000 metric tons of furnace oil will be imported from Malaysia's state-owned company Petronas Trading Corporation (Petco) and United Arab Emirates' state-owned company Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC). Furnace oil will have to be imported from both countries at a higher premium than before.

In this regard, a senior official of BPC said that 200,000 tons of furnace oil will be imported from Petco in Malaysia for the first six months. A delegation of BPC met with a delegation of Petco in Singapore on December 3 last year to determine the premium for the import of fuel oil this year. At that meeting, when Petco proposed a premium of 51.75 US dollars per barrel of Funes Oil, BPC representatives did not take it very seriously. Later, Petco's delegation visited Bangladesh from January 3 to 5 this year. At this time, on February 4, when the premium was discussed again between the two parties, the premium was set at 40.80 US dollars per barrel. The official said that the total cost of the government to buy 2 lakh metric tons of furnace oil from Petco at the fixed premium will be 1 thousand 286 crores 10 lakhs. And due to the increased premium, the additional expenditure will be 14 crore 70 lakh taka. 60 thousand metric tons of furnace oil will be imported for the first six months of this year from the Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC) of the United Arab Emirates. Its premium is estimated at 40.80 USD per barrel. Although the initial premium proposed by ENOC was US$ 51 per barrel. Later, due to BPC's objection, the premium was fixed at 40.80 USD per barrel on January 11. The government will spend Tk 385 crore 83 lakh to buy 60 thousand metric tons of furnace oil at the fixed premium. The official said that 4 crore 41 lakh rupees will be spent due to the additional premium. In the first six months of 2012, there is a demand of 2.2 million tons of diesel, 2.22 million tons of kerosene, 1 million 83 thousand tons of jet oil and 57 thousand tons of octane. On the other hand, Eastern Refinery (ERL), the only oil refinery in Bangladesh, will produce 180,000 tons of diesel and kerosene in the first six months of this year by refining crude oil. Besides, octane and jet oil are not produced in ERL. As a result, most of the fuel needs of the country have to be imported from different countries. However, the government's fuel subsidy was reduced. Because after the establishment of gas pumps, the import of fuel oil has decreased a lot. However, due to the increase in gas prices and the problem with the longevity of gas cars, many people are now using fuel oil. Due to which the import of fuel oil increased again. Data source: Dainik Yugantar.