A purchase order by the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) to import extra quantities of diesel and furnace oil has put the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) in big trouble.
Citing official sources UNB reports that the BPDB placed an extra order to BPC to import 105,800 tonnes of diesel and 101,000 tonnes of furnace oil for the month of October this year to meet its requirement in the liquid fuel-fired power plants run by private operators as well as by the government.
The BPC promptly moved to import the petroleum to avert any crisis in the power generation.
“But this emergency import of the two fuel items has ultimately put the BPC in big trouble as the BPDB is not now receiving the extra fuel”, said a top official of the BPC preferring not to be named.
He noted this extra import of furnace oil and diesel has created an extra burden for the BPC as it has very limited storage capacity.
“We had to import the fuel at a higher price and keep the petroleum in the vessel for several days in the sea”, he added.
Sources said the BPC already informed the BPDB through a letter dated October 27 about the trouble with the imported extra fuels.
In the letter, the BPC mentioned that the BPDB has received only 25,836 tonnes of diesel against a purchase order for 105,800 tonnes and 41,704 tonnes of furnace oil against a purchase order of 101,000 tonnes of furnace oil.
“If the BPDB does not receive the remaining oils, it would not be possible to further import the petroleum as per requirement”, the letter warned the principal petroleum marketing agency.
The BPC also demanded compensation from the BPPB for its demurrage to be paid to the fuel carrying ships.
BPDB (member) generation Ashraful Islam, however, denied the allegation saying that BPDB will receive the extra fuel in the second week of December for conducting a test-run into its newly built 330 MW power plants in Khulna.
“We will conduct a test run for the new power plant for six days and we will require 67,000 tonnes of fuel for the operation”, he said.
He admitted that in the coming days the requirement for diesel and furnace oil will decline during the coming winter.