Govt to buy 21 lakh tonnes fuel oil from six countries

Staff Reporter :
The government has decided to buy 21 lakh tonnes of fuel oil from six countries at a cost of Tk 18,760.56 crore for the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources. Out of 21 lakh tonnes, 20.40 lakh tonnes will be refined oil and 60,000 tonnes will be diesel.
The Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase on Wednesday has approved the procurement of fuel from China, India, Indonesia, UAE, Malaysia and Thailand.
The meeting was chaired by Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal. Additional Secretary of the Cabinet Division Sayeed Mahbub Khan briefed journalists after the meeting in the Bangladesh Secretariat. As per decision of the Cabinet Committee on Public Procurement, the BPC will import 60,000 tonnes of diesel from India’s Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) at the cost of Tk 545.04 crore and this diesel will be imported between January and December this year, he said.
 “Import of 20.40 lakh tonnes of refined fuel oil from seven state-owned companies of India, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates, China, Malaysia and Thailand has also been given approval in the meeting,” Sayeed Mahbub Khan said.
According to the Additional Cabinet Secretary, the BPC will buy a total of 20.40 lakh tonnes of refined fuel oil from Indonesia’s BSP, UAE’s ENOC, India’s IOCL, China’s PettoChina, Malaysia’s PTLCL, Thailand’s PTTT and China’s Unipec.
 An expenditure of 18,215.52 crore taka has been approved to import the refined fuel oil and this oil will be procured between January and June by this year, he added.