The Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) still counts a Tk 30-million healthy profit daily despite a recent uptrend in petroleum products in the global market.
It made a profit of around Tk 3.0 per litre in diesel as of February 07.
The corporation sells around 10,000 tonnes of diesel a day in the domestic market, said a senior official.
The current price of the fuel is Tk 65 per litre at retail level.
Diesel is the key petroleum product that the BPC mostly imports from the global market.
Among other products, it imports a nominal quantity of furnace oil and octane to meet the local demand.
The state corporation, however, incurs a loss of roughly Tk 4.0 per litre in furnace oil trade and makes a profit of around Tk 5.0 per litre in octane trading.
Furnace oil retails at Tk 41 per litre, kerosene at Tk 65, octane at Tk 89 and petrol at Tk 86.
The BPC meets most of its furnace oil demand from the Eastern Refinery Ltd (ERL) that produces around 350,000 tonnes annually after refining crude oil.
Most of the country's octane and entire petrol and kerosene demand are made from the ERL's output.
Oil price internationally is currently witnessing an uptrend after the steepest fall during the acute coronavirus pandemic after March 2020.
The price of Brent crude, the benchmark in global oil price, now hovers at $60 per barrel as of February 08, which was as low as $19.33 on April 21, 2020.
During the price fall, the BPC profited around Tk 16 per litre in diesel and Tk 5.50 per litre in the trading of other products in the domestic market.
The profit was calculated after deducting value-added tax and taxes against the import of petroleum products.
The BPC was incurring losses before the spread of the novel coronavirus disease, Covid-19.
It annually imports around 5.0-million tonnes of diesel, 1.30-million tonnes of crude oil, 200,000 tonnes of furnace oil and 50,000 tonnes of octane.
The BPC alone procures 85 per cent of the country's oil requirement, with the rest by the private sector.
Officials said the BPC racked up hefty profits riding on a sharp fall in oil prices in the international market during 2014-2017.
After 2017, its fiscal status moved ups and downs with the volatile oil prices.
Available statistics show the BPC booked a profit of Tk 42.12 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2014-15, Tk 63.42 billion in FY 2016 and Tk 43.99 billion in FY 2017. It also paid Tk 22 billion to the state exchequer in FY 2016 and FY 2017 as dividend.
Before late 2014, it incurred a loss of Tk 23.32 billion in FY 2014 and Tk 48.32 billion in FY 2013.
In FY 2011-12, the loss was Tk 113.71 billion, which was Tk 88.40 billion in FY 2010-11.
The corporation had counted losses every year since FY 2001-02 until FY 2013-14.
Before the pandemic, global oil prices were witnessing an uptrend due to the growing Iran-US tensions over the assassination of Iran's top general Qasem Soleimani.
azizjst@yahoo.com