Govt to import 5 million tons of diesel from India

The government has decided to purchase a total of five million tons diesel from India for 15 years at the cost of Tk188.84 crore.

This proposal by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources was approved during the Cabinet Committee meeting on Public Purchase on Wednesday, chaired by Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed.

The diesel will be sent from India’s Siliguri Marketing Terminal of Numaligarh Refinery Limited in Parbatipur Depot through the Indo-Bangla Friendship pipeline. A total of 27,500,000 tons of diesel will be sent every year.

Additional Secretary of the Cabinet Division Mostafizur Rahman told reporters that the proposal has been approved where each barrel will cost the government $5.92.

An agreement has already been signed between Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation and Numaligarh Refinery Limited to set up a 131-kilometer long pipeline from Siliguri, India to Parbatipur, Bangladesh.

The proposed project, the Indo-Bangla Friendship Pipeline, with a supply capacity of one million metric ton per annum, will save both time and money during oil imports.

mported fuel oil used to be transported from Shilghat in Assam to Bangladesh’s Baghbari Depot. This took about 15 to 20 days for each oil tanker to reach Bangladesh. Later due to various complications, the use of this route and import of oil from India had stopped.

In August, the government had decided to import 22,000 tons of diesel from India through the same pipeline. The consignment of the 500 ppm standard diesel was also supposed to come from the Siliguri marketing terminal to the Parbatipur oil depot.

Source : Dhakatribune.com/