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Costly fuel import to cost BPC extra Tk 50cr

Ignoring cheaper offer, it chooses Malaysian oil

Sharier Khan
Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) is once again buying the major part of the country's oil needs at a very high premium rate from Malaysia, making an extra cost of around Tk 50 crore which still can be avoided, sources say.
The BPC in recent years purchased petroleum products from several countries to meet the country's petroleum needs of 3.5 million tonnes. In the past the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) had been the main supplier of BPC till it started charging high premium when the oil price skyrocketed and BPC started delaying payments.
To meet the country's oil demands for 2010, BPC in mid-September signed an agreement with the Petronas Trading Corporation (Petco) ofMalaysia.
Petco will supply one million tonnes of gas oil or diesel by charging BPC a premium of $4.7
per barrel, around 150,000 tonnes of jet fuel and kerosene at $6.25 per barrel premium, and 100,000 tonnes of motor fuel at $8.5 premium per barrel.
But BPC on October 29 made another deal with KPC to supply 7.1 lakh tonnes of gas oil or diesel at $3.9 a barrel premium and 130,000 tonnes of jet fuel-kerosene at $4.9 a barrel.
This deal shows a significant difference of costs. A source explains by purchasing diesel from Petco at higher premium, BPC is spending $5.2 million or Tk 36 crore extra.
Similarly, the jet fuel deal is also $1.4 million or Tk 11 crore costlier than the KPC deal.
The KPC is not the only supplier offering lower premium rates. The Philippines National Oil Company (PNOC) and Egyptian national oil company Midor are also offering only $3.9 premium for supply of 60,000 tonnes of diesel each for January to June next year. The BPC did not even invite another supplier Maldives National Oil Company to checkout the market trend.
The premium is a flexible issue which is periodically negotiated and re-fixed. But on the issue of renegotiating premium with Petco, BPC and the concerned desk of the energy ministry are not showing much interest.
Back in June-July, BPC made a similar questionable deal with Petco that inflicted an extra cost of between Tk 60-70 crore due to very high premium.
Premium covers freight forwarding, commission and other charges asked by the exporting company. A lower premium means lower cost for BPC in importing petroleum.
Unlike premium, the price of per tonne of petroleum cannot be exactly fixed beforehand through negotiations as it goes up or down on a daily basis.
Due to a high oil import price, BPC incurred a loss ofTk 3,575 crore during the 2008-09 year, while it incurred over Tk 9,500 crore loss In the previous fiscal year.
Ihe BPC has Tk 6,206 crore outstanding loans with vari-ousbanks till December 2008.