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Kerosene Shortfall

Kuwait responds to crisis, sending fuel

UNB, Dhaka
Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) will dispatch emergency consignments of kerosene and jet fuel to enable Bangladesh overcome a sudden fuel crisis.
Officials at the Energy and Mineral Resources Division yesterday said Kuwait government owned KPC showed positive response about sending the fuel consignments immediately.
Initially, a shipment of 30,000 tonnes of fuel, including 22,000 tonnes of kerosene and 8,000 tonnes of jet fuel, is expected to reach Bangladesh by February 25, while another freight of 2.10 lakh
tonnes of diesel is scheduled to arrive on February 12.
State Minister for Energy AKM Mosharraf Hossain told newspersons that the Board of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) contacted the KPC through Bangladesh Embassy in Kuwait and received an assurance of meeting its demand of next three months.
Besides, the state minister said a re-tender has been initiated for supply of petroleum fuel for nine months commencing from April this year.
"We are also going to do away with rationing of supplies from depots after the KPC assurance," Mosharraf said, admitting that a 40 percent rationing has been maintained apprehending a crisis.
On kerosene hoarding by unscrupulous quarters, the minister said they would take action against them. "But ultimately they will be losers, as now there is no fear of shortage."
Currently the country has a stock of kerosene for 14, diesel for 16 and jet fuel for 15 days, although the present administration could in advance raise the stock equivalent to two months' needs from the previous practice of one month's.
Officials preferring anonymity blamed the delayed procurement procedure and subsequent cancellation of an international tender by the Cabinet Purchase Committee forthe present crisis.
Earlier on January 6, the BPC sent a proposal for purchasing 7.5 lakh tonnes of various fuel oils through Japanese Marubeni and Indian Reliance, who were the lowest bidders.
But the committee took more than two weeks to monitor the proposal and rejected the tender on January 24 without considering how
to meetfuel demand.
The reason behind cancellation of the tender was that the purchase worth Tk 1,500 crore would affect the foreign-exchange reserve, as the LC (letter of credit) was due to be opened in cash.
The cancellation had other impacts too. Unscrupulous profiteers took it as an opportunity for hoarding kerosene, anticipating that delays in this regard would create fuel crisis.
Besides, demands for kerosene increased as the ravenous quarters are mixing it with comparatively costly diesel for transport fuelling, and many irrigation pumps use kerosene instead of diesel.
The monthly demand for kerosene, at the price of Tk 17 per litre, in the past months increased from 53,000 tonnes to 63,000 tonnes, while this January, the demand rose to 73,000 tonnes.
The other way round, monthly demand for diesel, Tk 20 per litre, decreased from 1.6 lakh tonnes in 2002 to 1.5 lakh in 2003. In January this year, the demand further declined to 1.41 lakh tonnes.