The state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) has floated tender to import up to 1.345 million tonnes of refined oil products during the second half of 2019 calendar year (July-December).
The oil products include up to 1.12 million tonnes of 0.05 per cent sulphur gasoil (diesel), 110,000 tonnes of jet fuel, 100,000 tonnes of furnace oil, and 15,000 tonnes of octane.
The tender bid submission deadline is May 16, and the offer validity will be until September 02.
The BPC intends to import the petroleum products under four groups, namely Group A, Group B Group C and Group D, on CFR (cost and freight) basis at Chattogram Port.
Under Group A, the selected international oil supplier will provide 480,000-510,000 tonnes of diesel, and 60,000 tonnes of jet fuel.
Under Group B, the selected supplier will provide 460,000-610,000 tonnes of diesel, and 50,000 tonnes of jet fuel.
Under Group C, the supplier will provide 60,000-100,000 tonnes of furnace oil, and under Group D, the selected international oil supplier will provide 15,000 tonnes of octane.
To take part in the bidding, the bidder must own a crude oil refinery, having the refining capacity of at least 3.0 million tonnes per year. Besides, minimum annual turnover of the bidder must be US$ 3.0 billion.
The interested bidder must have experience of satisfactorily completing yearly export of at least 2.0 million tonnes of petroleum products over the past three years.
The oil suppliers will be able to submit bids either for any of the four, three, two or all the groups.
Bangladesh usually imports around 3.5 million tonnes of diesel, 2.0 million tonnes of furnace oil, 350,000 tonnes of jet fuel, and 30,000 tonnes of octane per year.
The state-run oil corporation sources around half of its refined oil products through open tender, and the remaining half through government to government (G2G) negotiations.
Unipec, Vitol and ENOC are the major suppliers of refined oil products to the BPC under tendering system.
Currently, the organisation has term contracts with eight global oil suppliers to import refined oil products.
The term suppliers of the BPC include Kuwait Petroleum Corp, 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, and Indonesia's Bumi Siak Pusako.
The government agency also imports annually around 700,000 tonnes of Murban crude from Abu Dhabi National Oil Co and around 700,000 tonnes of Arab Light from Saudi Aramco for its lone operational refinery - the Eastern Refinery Ltd. It has 1.50 million tonnes per year refining capacity, and is located in Chattogram.
azizjst@yahoo.com