The Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation has finalised the premiums for eight foreign companies for importing refined fuel oil in the first half of the next year.
BPC officials said the per-barrel premiums of diesel, octane and jet fuel had been kept the same as the existing ones. The cost of high speed furnace oil would come down by $2 per tonne.
A high-powered delegation led by Energy Secretary Md Mozammel Haque Khan had visited Singapore on November 19-26 to negotiate the premiums for the January-June 2014 period.
The premiums – transportation, insurance and other costs – are reviewed every six months.
BPC Chairman Md Eunusur Rahman on Friday said the premium of diesel had been finalised at $4.80 per barrel, jet fuel and kerosene at $5.80 per barrel, and octane $7.5 per barrel.
The premium of furnace oil had been set at $35 per tonne, sources said.
The BPC, the country’s lone oil importer-distributor, was set to import 7.7m tonnes of petroleum fuel next year; the fuel demand this year was 5.3m tonnes, corporation officials said.
“The BPC will import 2.7m tonnes of diesel, 700,000 tonnes of furnace oil, 300,000 tonnes of jet fuel, 10,000 tonnes of kerosene, and 30,000 tonnes of octane,” an official of the BPC told the Dhaka Tribune on Friday.
The BPC strikes deals with national oil companies of other countries under government-to-government contracts for at least two years.
Bangladesh’s suppliers are the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, Malaysia-based PETCO – a trading wing of Petronas, UAE-based Emirates National Oil Company, Chinese National Oil Company’s trading wing Petrochina, Egyptian National Oil Company or Midor, Vietnamese National Oil Company or Petro Limex, Philippines National Oil Company, and Bumisiek of Indonesia.
The BPC chairman said they would send a report to the cabinet committee on public purchase for approval.
The corporation annually imports about 5m tonnes of crude and refined oil at an average price of Tk500bn.