Bangladesh has renewed a term oil products supply deal with Kuwait for
diesel and jet, the chairman of its state oil company said on Wednesday.
Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) will import 1.2 million tonnes of oil
products annually from Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), Mohammad Muqtadir
Ali told Reuters.
He said that under an agreement already signed, KPC would supply 1.0 million
tonnes of diesel and the rest would be jet fuel.
The two-year agreement, which will expire in December 2012, replaces a
similar deal to buy 1.0 million tonnes a year that expired in December.
KPC is a regular supplier to Bangladesh, providing one-fourth of its total
demand for diesel and all its jet fuel.
Bangladesh’s fuel oil imports will rise by 28 percent to estimated at nearly
5.0 million tonnes this year because of higher domestic demand, the BPC
chairman said.
Besides KPC, he said Bangladesh has also signed deals to import fuel oil
from PETCO of Malaysia, Middle East Oil Refinery Egypt, Petrochina
International Singapore PTE Limited, Maldives National Oil Company and PT Bumi
Siak Pusako of Indonesia.
BPC is the only oil importer and distributor in the country.
“HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank and Citi Bank have offered $250m syndicated
loan to the BPC,” an official of the energy division said.
The rate of interest of the loan will be similar to that of Jeddah-based
Islamic Development Bank (IDB), the official told Reuters.
Bangladesh recently received a loan from the IDB for buying oil with an
interest rate of more than 5.0 percent.
The government has already provided $208m to the BPC as subsidy to cope with
loses it incured due to price difference between importing and selling.
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