Crude oil samples sent by Russian state-owned fuel oil supplier Zarubezhneft JSC are being tested at Chattogram's Eastern Refinery (ERL) lab. The organization has set a possible time to submit a report in this regard to the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) next week.
The recent Russia-Ukraine war has created major volatility in the global oil market. Some countries, including India and China, started buying crude oil from Russia at low prices. Russia offered to sell crude oil to Bangladesh. Bangladesh has also expressed interest in buying crude oil from Russia at low prices.
According to sources, Bangladesh usually imports crude oil from Saudi Arabia and UAE. The Eastern Refinery Limited of Chattogram refines that oil and produces various fuel oils including diesel, petrol, octane.
They have the capacity to refine 1.5 million tons of oil per year. About 75 percent of the total fuel demand in the country is diesel.
It is known that due to the high cost of refining, it will not be possible to import fuel oil from Russia in the end.
After some countries including India and China started buying oil from Russia, last May the country also offered to buy crude oil from Bangladesh.
To deal with the crisis, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina recently ordered a review of the issue of fuel oil import from Russia in the meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC).
After receiving the report from Chattogram's Eastern Refinery Lab, BPC took the initiative to verify various issues including the quality, usability, price and import cost of Russian fuel oil. Crude oil samples sent by Zarubezhneft JSC arrived at Dhaka's Shahjalal International Airport on August 25.
Last Thursday (September 1), the representatives of National Electric BD Limited, the Bangladeshi agent of Zarubezhneft JSC, handed over the shipment of crude oil samples weighing 50 kg in five plastic jars to Eastern Refinery Managing Director Mohammad Lokman. The sample was sent to the lab on the same day.
When asked, an official of Eastern Refinery Limited said, "Oil samples have arrived, many tests have been done. Some tests are still left. A committee has been appointed to test oil samples from Russia. The committee members will analyse the test results.
Then the final report will be prepared. We expect to submit the report to the BPC next week. As BPC is our mother concern, BPC or Ministry of Energy will give opinion on this matter. They will scrutinize the matter and send it to the ministry.
He said that it is difficult to say whether Russia's fuel oil is eligible for import in the preliminary examination. It would not be right to say before the committee's analysis. It will say BPC or Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.
We will test the sample only and report the result.
Its known that Russian oil has a high sulphur content, which may increase refining costs.
This will increase the price of diesel, but there is no word yet on crude oil. Considering the cost there, it may not be possible to import crude oil from Russia later. This can be fully confirmed in the sample test results.
