Some 50-litre Russian heavy crude oil has reached Dhaka by airfreight as specimen to check whether it can be refined in Bangladesh's decades-old lone refinery, as fuel-shortage concern haunts the country.
"We got the crude oil and will test in the country's lone refinery -Eastern Refinery Ltd (ERL)," says a senior official of the state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC).
If the ERL in the port city of Chattagram can refine the crude, Bangladesh might initiate negotiations to import this sort of Russian crude oil for the first time to refine into petroleum products, he adds.
Separately, BPC is considering importing refined petroleum products, too, as Russian Rosneft Oil Company has offered Bangladesh to supply gasoil (diesel), jet fuel and gasoline (octane) at much lower prices than international market rates.
"We took the offer seriously and initiated work to import petroleum products for the first time from Russia," says the BPC official.
The state corporation is the lone importer of all the three types of oil that the Russian company has offered to export.
Apart from Rosneft, some other third parties have also offered Bangladesh to source Russian oil, he said, without naming the names.
Officials said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is also in charge of the energy ministry, instructed last week the authorities concerned, immediately after getting the Russian offer, to prepare a plan for buying oil from Russia.
During a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC), the premier asked why Bangladesh could not buy fuel from Russia when India could, Planning Minister MA Mannan, who attended the meeting, quoted her as saying.
After the Ecnec meeting, Mr Mannan quoted the premier as saying, "Due to the Russia-Ukraine war, people are suffering because of the increase in global fuel prices. This is becoming a problem. India and other countries are buying oil from Russia-so we have to see if we, too, can."
Russia has offered currency swap to implement the bilateral trade, he added.
Asked about potential risks of buying from Russia as Bangladesh has strong economic ties with the countries imposing the sanctions, he said, "Other countries are importing. If we find it to be risky, we will go for other options."
Bangladesh may prefer to import Russian oil via a third country like India to avert possible risks of business, said the BPC official.
Currently, India imports Russian oil despite the US sanctions while Bangladesh has a long-term contract with India to import refined oil from its refinery at Numaligarh in the Indian state of Assam, he mentioned the scope of third-party trade.
"If there is a bilateral arrangement between the two nations, such business is very much possible," says the official of the petroleum agency that feels the pinch of a global crunch on the energy front.
Regarding the Rosneft offer, he says the firm has sent specifications of gasoil, jet fuel and gasoline they intend to export.
But their specifications are of lower grade than which the BPC imports currently from other countries.
"We have sent them letter mentioning our oil specifications and other terms and conditions to initiate import of Russian oil," he said, without elaborating on the modalities.
Bangladesh currently imports 0.005-percent-sulfur gasoil, A-1 jet fuel and 95 RON gasoline (octane) from its existing global suppliers, mostly of Middle East origin.
BPC is currently importing refined petroleum products above the international market rates, with premium added up, in view of the exigencies of troubled world situation that has brought some countries on the verge of bankruptcy through fund, fuel and food crises.
In such a desperate situation, Bangladesh government has also constituted a high-powered committee to scrutinize the Russian oil-export offer in detail and take necessary action soon.
BPC officials, however, fear that due to all existing contracts intact Bangladesh may not be able to utilize significantly the benefit of importing 'cheap' Russian oil for now as the country's contracts with global suppliers of petroleum products stand in the way till this yearend.
The BPC will have to continue importing oils until December this year under the existing contracts with the suppliers, they say.
If the government decides to initiate oil import from Russia before December, the BPC will have to import a minimum quantity from the current contractual suppliers as there is space of adding or deducting import quantity by up to 10, they add.
Azizjst@yahoo.com