A five-member Bangladesh delegation set off for Singapore yesterday for a 9-day visit to strike deals on the premium of oil imports over the next six months period from eight foreign state suppliers.
“We will negotiate with all the potential suppliers there as they are all coming to Singapore and we can easily meet with all of them at one place,” state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation’s chairman, Md Eunusur Rahman, told the Dhaka Tribune Saturday.
The suppliers are Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), Malaysia –based PETCO - a trading wing of Petronas, UAE-based Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC), Petrochina – trading wing of Chinese national oil company, Egyptian National Oil Company or Midor, Vietnamese National Oil Company or Petro Limex, Philippines National Oil Company or PNOC and Bumisiek of Indonesia.
This is for the first time an energy division secretary is leading the premium negotiations team or even going with it, Eunusur said. Aside from secretary Md Mozammel Khan, the BPC chief, its director for marketing, SM Rejoan Hossain, and general manager for operations, Mustafa Qudrat-I-Elahi will join the trip that would last until June 10.
“We will talk with them about negotiating premium rates for next six months [July- December] before signing the deals,” the BPC chairman said, adding that they would be sending a report to the cabinet committee on public purchase for approval to import oil through the six-month term from these suppliers.
Premiums finalised with the eight foreign companies for the first half of this year was higher than the previous six months. For diesel, it set the rate at $4.3 per barrel, up from $3.8 for July to December 2012. The contract for jet fuel and kerosene was set at a premium of $5.30 per barrel up by half a dollar while octane premium rose to $7.35 from $7.05.
However, the premium for furnace oil for the first half of 2013 remained unchanged at $39.50 per tonne.
The BPC imports about five million tonnes of crude and refined oil at a price of roughly Tk500bn.