An evaluation committee has been tasked with submitting a report within 15 working days on the import of petroleum products for Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation.
The seven-member committee, led by a director of BPC, was formed yesterday to evaluate the documents submitted by the tender bidders for the import.
BPC Director Mosleh Uddin said 12 out of the 16 international bidders have qualified. They include: Emirates National Oil Company (sin.) Pte. Ltd (ENOC), China-based Petrochina (Singapore) Pte. Ltd; Unipec Singapore Pte. Ltd, Malaysia-based PETRONAS and US-based ExxonMobil.
On February 11, the international tender was floated for the import, doing away with the government-to-government (G2G) negotiations, to make profits in the context of a slumping global oil market.
BPC Chairman AM Badrudduja told the Dhaka Tribune that the cost of import would either be covered from BPC’s fund or sourced from the state coffer.
BPC will procure of 9.875 million barrels [1.32 million tonnes] of import refined diesel [GASOIL] and 1.440 million barrels [180,000 tonnes] of Jet A-1
The government believes that importing oil through international tenders will lower the premium rate. State-owned BPC incurred huge losses after introducing the G2G system in 2003-04.