World Business

Bangladesh projects big hike in fuel oil import bills

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-04-19 15:13

DHAKA - Bangladesh's fuel oil import bills in the next fiscal year 2010-11 beginning in July will mark rise by over 36 percent compared to that in the ongoing fiscal year 2009-10 (July 2009-June 2010), a senior official said Monday.

The official of the state-run Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation, known as Petrobangla, said on condition of anonymity that the country's annual demand of fuel oil will shoot up from existing annual 3.5 million tons to around 4.3 million tons in the next fiscal year 2010-11 (July 2010-June 2011).

Annual demand of fuel oil will mark rise sharply because of installation of more oil-fired power plants in the country, he said.

Against this backdrop, the official said, "Petrobangla in a high level meeting on Sunday made the projection that fuel oil import bills in the 2010-11 financial year would be around 199 billion taka ($2.8 billion) against about 146 billion taka of the ongoing financial year."

He said the meeting also discussed that the country may need to look for new sources for import of crude and refined products to meet its growing domestic need.

Bangladesh is now reportedly importing oil from Kuwait, Malaysia,the Maldives, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.