Bangladesh is set to import an additional 45,000 tonnes of diesel from India by April, according to official reports.
A senior official of the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) said the country has already started receiving diesel shipments from India, and more supplies are expected in the coming weeks.
“Recently, 5,000 tons of diesel arrived in Bangladesh from India, and we will receive another 5,000 tons around the 18th or 19th of March in Bangladesh from India”, Md. Murshed Hossain Azad, General Manager (Commercial & Operations) of BPC said.
“We have received a proposal to import an additional 40,000 tons of diesel from India. Once the procedural work is completed–that is, the opening of the LC and other formalities–this 40,000 tons of diesel will also arrive in Bangladesh by April,” he added.
Earlier, diesel supplies from India to Bangladesh were transported by train wagons. However, the arrangement changed after the commissioning of the India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline.
In March 2023, then Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi jointly inaugurated the pipeline, enabling the direct transfer of diesel between the two countries.
Through this pipeline, diesel is imported regularly from the Indian state company Numaligarh Refinery Limited to the Parbatipur depot in Bangladesh.
The war in West Asia continues to damage global trade, with disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz. Panic buying led to large crowds gathering at petrol pumps to purchase fuel for motorcycles and other vehicles. To manage the surge in demand, the government had introduced rationing on fuel sales. The restriction has now been lifted.
