Losses to filling stations have started to mount as the BNP-led countrywide blockade stifled demand for fuel oil, interrupted fuel deliveries from depots to filling stations and intimidated filling stations into remaining closed.
Fuel oil consumption decreased significantly because the continuous blockade and shut-downs have disrupted vehicular movements across the country.
“Many transportation company owners are not operating their vehicles out of fear of attacks,” Mohammad Nazmul Haque, president of the Petrol Pump and Tank-Lorry Owners Association told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
He said under normal conditions around 12,000 tonnes of diesel, petrol and octane were sold across the country every day.
“Now we are selling a mere 2,000 tonnes per day. Our losses have been huge for the last couple of days. We have incurred crores in losses,” Nazmul said.
Even as owners of trucks, buses and tankers have not been buying fuel oil for the past few days because of the blockades, filling stations have also remained shut out of fear of blockade violence.
Of the 9,000 filling stations in the country, most stayed shut because of the blockade, the president of the Petrol Pump and Tank-Lorry Owners Association said.
Transport vehicle owners have been unwilling to operate their vehicles on the streets because of the ongoing political violence.
“We risk facing political violence on the roads and highways. Most filling stations are located beside major thoroughfares,” Nazmul said.
A petrol pump worker from the Mohammadpur area of the capital said his pump remained closed out of fear of violence and vandalism.
“We cannot get fuel at most petrol pumps in the capital. The pumps are closed,” a bus driver who works in the capital said.
The country’s lone oil importer and distributor, Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), sells its oil to refuelling stations through the state-owned Padma, Meghna and Jamuna oil companies.
“There is no crisis of fuel oil,” the BPC Chairman A M Badrudduja told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
But the BPC chairman admitted that Kurigram district had been dry for the last two days due to a lack of fuel supply from depots to filling stations.
He said: “About 90% of petroleum fuel is transported across the country via the waterways. Eight percent of fuel oil is supplied via rail and two percent is transported by road.”
“We have decided to take special measures for the roads. We will seek support from law enforcement agencies and the district administrations to transport fuel during the blockade,” Badrudduja said.
According to the BPC, 44% of petroleum products is consumed by the communications sector, 22.47% is used in power generation, 20.95% in agriculture, 4.43% is used by industries and 8.15% by households and others.
