The government is planning to start importing cleaner diesel from July next year as part of its effort to protect the environment.
The fuel oil would have the sulfur content of 0.001 per cent, much lower than that of the existing 0.05 per cent, which is now being imported in the country, officials said.
State-run Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), the lone importer of gasoil, is expected to import around 1.75 million tonnes of diesel during the July-December period of 2018, a senior BPC official told the FE Thursday.
Globally, the nations are trying to reduce such chemical contents and other environmentally harmful substances amid apprehension of serious setbacks due to climate change impact.
Bangladesh will have to reduce its gasoil specification to 0.001 per cent sulfur diesel by 2019 in line with the instructions from the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) to ensure safe environment, said the official.
"But we want to start importing the cleaner gasoil from mid-2018 to stay ahead of the deadline," he said.
The BPC official said the existing gasoil suppliers of BPC are also keen to provide low-sulfur gasoil for, what they said, ensuring smooth availability of the 10 parts per million (ppm) of diesel.
The suppliers showed interest to start supplying the cleaner gasoil from January 2018 as many newly-built refineries were producing the cleaner fuel in larger volumes, said the official.
But, he added, the BPC will not be able to import it from early 2018 as the state agency was already at its final stage of awarding a tender to Unipec Singapore Pte Ltd to supply around 780,000-980,000 tonnes of diesel with 0.05 per cent sulfur during the first half of 2018.
Besides, the BPC was also at the final stage of completing negotiation with gasoil suppliers on term basis to import 0.05 per cent sulfur diesel during the H1 2018, the official added.
The BPC has been importing 0.05 per cent sulfur diesel under both the term deals and open tendering in line with a government decision.
It is importing 0.05 per cent sulfur diesel from Unipec under an open tendering system on CFR basis at Chittagong port while Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, or KPC, is the major term supplier of 0.05 per cent sulfur gasoil.
Other term suppliers of 0.05 per cent sulfur diesel to BPC include Malaysia's Petco Trading Labuan Company, Emirates National Oil Company, PetroChina Singapore, Chinese Zhenhua Oil Company Ltd, Petrolimex Singapore of Vietnam, Philippine National Oil Corporation, Indonesia's Bumi Siak Pusako, and Oman Trading International.
The BPC had last changed the sulfur content of diesel for import in January 2015, when it started importing 0.05 per cent sulfur diesel instead of 0.20 to 0.25 per cent sulfur diesel. All suppliers excepting the KPC had then started supplying 0.05 per cent sulfur diesel to BPC.
Bangladesh has been importing around 3.5-3.7 million tonnes of diesel over the past several years to meet the mounting domestic demand.
