The Hydrocarbon Unit of the Energy and Mineral Resources Division has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) to enhance research and capacity building in the country’s energy sector. The two organisations signed the deal at a function at BUET on Monday where State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Division Nasrul Hamid was present as chief guest. Welcoming the agreement, the state minister said that this will help the Hydrocarbon Unit to prepare accurate data and a proper plan for the energy sector. The MoU will also expand the field of research in the energy sector, he said. Read more: Hydrocarbon Unit signs MoU with BUET to enhance research in energy sector “Coordinated initiatives are necessary to ensure a sustainable energy system,” Hamid added. He underscored the need for a coordinated network of researchers, academics and professionals to make a plan successful. Success will certainly be achieved if the planning and activities are carried out by estimating the needs of the future, he added. With BUET Vice-Chancellor Professor Satya Prasad Majumdar in the chair, the event was also addressed, among others, by Energy Secretary Dr Md Khairuzzaman Majumder, BUET Vice-Chancellor Professor Abdul Jabbar Khan, Energy and Sustainability Research Institute Director Professor Farsim Mannan Mohammadi and Director General of Hydrocarbon Unit Tahmina Yasmin. Read more: Plan to float int’l bidding for offshore hydrocarbon exploration dropped before election

The Cabinet Committee on Government Purchased (CCGP) has approved a number of procurement proposals including import of LNG, sugar and soybean oil. The committee, at a virtual meeting with Finance Minister AHM Muastafa Kamal in the chair, on Thursday gave the approval to the proposals. As per a proposal, placed by Energy and Mineral Resources Division,  state-owned Petrobangla will import a cargo containing 33.60 lakh MMBtu (Metric Million British Thermal Unit) of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Total Energies Gas & Power Ltd., Switzerland at a cost of Tk 618.21 crore with each MMBtu cost at $14.66. Petrobangla’s subsidiary Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Company Limited (RPGCL) will import the 4th LNG cargo to meet the growing demand of gas for the power and industries. As per approval, Trading Corporation of Bangladesh will import 25,000 metric tons of sugar from two separate companies. Of these, 12,500 metric tons (MT) of sugar will be procured from Global Corporation, Dhaka at a cost of Tk 132.50 crore while another 12,500 MT will be imported from Golden Wings General Trading FZE, UAE (Local Agent: Shanzaib Ltd., Dhaka at a cost of Tk 68.73 crore. the imports will be made through direct procurement method (DPM). But why such a huge difference in the price of the sugar of two companies was not explained by any official as there was no press briefing following the meeting. Read more: Govt resumes importing LNG from int'l spot market The Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) will import 60,000 MT of urea fertiliser from two companies. Of these, 30,000 MT of bagged granular urea fertiliser will be imported from Karnaphuli Fertiliser Company at a cost of Tk 105.62 crore while remaining 30,000 MT of bulk granular urea fertiliser will be imported from SABIC Agri-nutrients Company at a cost of Tk 107.28 crore.  

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) has urged the government to disconnect all illegal gas connections in the country. BGMEA President Faruque Hassan made the call as he met with Md Mahbub Hossain, senior secretary at the Energy and Mineral Resources Division, in the capital Sunday. They discussed the present situation of the apparel industry, especially the current demand and supply of natural gas in the garment and textile industries and future scenarios. Faruque said illegal gas connections deprive the government of a big revenue opportunity and also pose the risk of fire. These connections take a large amount of gas, putting pressure on the mainline, and ultimately cause problems for the legal users, including the industrial sector, he added. Inadequate gas supply and low pressure disrupt industrial production, hurting the export-oriented industries, including garment and textile sectors which have to maintain lead time in shipping goods, Faruque said. He assured the senior secretary of all-out cooperation from the BGMEA to the government in its drive to snap unauthorised gas connections, especially in the industrial zones. BGMEA Vice-President Shahidullah Azim and Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Managing Director Haronur Rashid Mullah were also present at the meeting.

Senior Scecretary of the Energy and Mineral Resources Division has said that the decision to raise fuel price was absolutely a political, not a bureaucratic one. “This was fully a political decision and it was not taken by bureaucrats”, he told a webinar, organised by Forum for Energy Reporters Bangladesh (FERB) on Thursday. Defending the fuel price hike, he said there was no other option  for Energy Division but to raise the price. He, however, said there is no plan of raising the price of octane or petrol as the two items are produced locally. Read:Consumers have to bear some of the burden of increased fuel price: Finance Minister In the seminar: titled: “Fuel Price Hike: Upcoming Impact” Secretary General of the Bangladesh Jatrikalayan Samity, Mozemmel Haque Chowdhury said the people will have to pay Tk 73,000 crore extra due to the fuel price and bus fare hike. The government recently increased the price of diesel and kerosene by 23 percent and subsequently bus fare by 26 percent. With FERB chairman Arun Karmaker, the virtual seminar was also addressed by  Chairman of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) ABM Azad, advisor of Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) prof M Shamsul Alam, energy expert Prof Ijaz Hossain, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Director Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem and Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) director Mohiuddin Rubel. ABM Azad said BPC has no authority to take decision on price. “The ultimate decision comes from the government and it has to implement the decision as per law”, he added. Mozammel Haque said the mass people have been pushed to a deep crisis through raising the fuel price. He said passengers have to pay daily Tk 200 crore and Tk 73,000 crore annually for increased bus fares. He said the government can easily adjust the BPC’s loss of Tk 6000 crore from the National Budget of Tk 600,000 crore Dr Golam Moazzem said the government had many options other than raising the fuel price to cover its loss. He said if the taxes are waived on the fuel import, it would not have to raise the price or the government can compensate BPC loss with stimulus package. Read:CPD for reinstating previous fuel prices Mohiuddin Rubel said the garment sector will have direct impact of Tk 3000 crore loss. It would have been better if the government waited for some more times. “We have just started recovering from the Cofid-19 effect. At this stage, such a decision was taken to raise the fuel price”.  Mohammad Hatem, President of BKMEA, said this was not right time to increase the fuel price when economy has just started recovering from shock of the COVID-19. CAB advisor Prof Shamsul Alam said it’s a bureaucratic decision to raise the fuel price, not a political one. He alleged that the government is now acting as player instead of a regulator while owners of transport sector has been acting as regularor. He said the BPC violated the law in raising the fuel price and In future, the officials will face the trial for violation of law. BUET’s former Professor Ijaz Hossain  said all previous governments tried keep the diesel price lower. But current decision seems it is trying to change the policy. BPDB chairman Belayet Hossain said BPDB is a consumer of energy sector. He also agreed with the apprehension as the economy will suffer from fuel price hike.

The global price surge in the petroleum fuels is forcing the government to count losses as it has to import both liquid petroleum and liquefied natural gas (LNG) at rates much higher than that was last year.   According to official sources, against the backlash of price surge of petroleum fuels the state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) is now importing different petroleum products at more than  double the rates than the last year’s. As a result, the BPC has been incurring a loss of over Tk 20 crore per day, said a top official of the prime government petroleum marketing entity. Read: Proposals for LNG, petroleum, wheat import get clearance To offset the loss, the petroleum marketing body is now going to propose the government to allow it to set a price on a monthly basis, said a top official at the BPC. “Soon, we’ll send a proposal to the Energy and Mineral Resources Division to allow the BPC to set the petroleum prices on a monthly basis”, Syed Mehdi Hasan, director (operations & planning), told UNB. Currently, the Energy and Mineral Resources Division sets the fuel price on an occasional basis considering the global market price. According to BPC sources, the refined petroleum fuel, specially, diesel, is now selling as much as at $93 per barrel on the global market this week which was selling at $43 per barrel in October 2020. “We’ve to now buy the diesel from the world market at a price more than double  the price it was selling last year”, said a BPC official working at the commercial & operations department of the organization.     He said if the current rates of petroleum continue or witness a rise, the BPC will have to incur a loss of Tk 7000—Tk 8000 crore in a year.

Two years after the government opened the prepaid gas metre market to the private competition, none has been able to enter the fray due to lack of enough preparation.  The government’s policy, announced in 2019, initially got enthusiastic response.  Many local and foreign companies came forward to enter the lucrative market with import, development, manufacturing, marketing and supply of smart prepaid gas metre for consumers.  Read:Erratic gas supply hits hard residents at Demra, neighbouring areas None of these companies has so far succeeded in their ventures. Officials at the state-owned Petrobangla, responsible for setting the standard and technical specifications for the metres, said they are still hopeful about the arrival of the private sector. “Already a good number of companies made demonstrations of their metres and those were enthusiastic. We hope they will be able to meet our standard and technical specifications and finally come to the market”, said Habib Uddin Ahmed, general manager (engineering), and head of the technical committee of the Petrobangla. Read  HC rules on govt decision to not provide new household gas connections He, however, said it takes some time to meet our compliances as the things are new and such ventures involve huge investment. Many of the companies are studying the market first and then they will either move for importing metres or setting up plants to manufacture locally. So they need time for their preparation, he added. Sources said local Beximco and Bangladesh Smart Electrical Company Ltd., a joint venture of West Zone Power Distribution company and Chinese firm Hexing Electrical Co. Ltd, are among those showing interest in the business.  Read No cash or gas to run from Ida: ‘We can’t afford to leave’ They said the Energy and Mineral Resources Division under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources took up the move for opening smart prepaid metre market for private sector in 2019. After a long discussion with the stakeholders, it published a gazette notification on December 4 in 2019 setting a detailed standard, technical specifications and compliances for the smart pre-paid metres. It also invited private companies to come to the market with their own devices by taking approval from the Petrobangla. Read:Titas Gas seeks foreign funding for installing 1.25 million prepaid metres in Dhaka city

Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase on Wednesday approved eight procurement proposals including the import of LNG.  Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal presided over the meeting. As per a proposal, placed by Energy and Mineral Resources Division, state-owned Petrobangla will import 3.360 million MMBtu of LNG from Vitol Asia Pte Ltd, Singapore, at a cost of Tk 267.57 crore. Each unit will cost $8.01. Also read: Cabinet purchase body approves LNG, rice import Three proposals of the Roads Transport and Highways Division received the nod of the Cabinet body. As per the proposals, Roads and Highways Department will award a Tk 188.35 crore contract to Spectra Engineers Ltd, under package No-PW-02 of its Project “Installing Excel Load Control Centre at the Transport Sourcing Points in the Important Highways”. The Roads and Highways Department will extend the cost of 25km road improvement from Cox’s Bazar to Ukhia by Tk 13.43 crore under the package No-WP-01 of Cox’s Bazar-Tekhnaf Road Development project and also Tk 16 crore for 25km road improvement from Ukhia to Unchiprang road of the same project under the package No-WP-02.   Also read: Will seek details of Vitol Asia on LNG supply: Finance Minister The committee approved two proposals of the Railway Ministry. As per approval, Bangladesh Railway (BR) will award a contract of Tk 433.78 crore to Joint Venture of (1) CREC and (2) CCCL, Dhaka, to implement the project: Construction of Broadguage Rail Truck from Madhukhali to Madura via Kamarkhali under its package No-WD-1. The BR will award Tk 448.98 crore contract to Joint Venture of (1) CRCC and (2) MAHL, Dhaka, to implement the work under the package No-WD-02 of the same project. Also read: Cabinet body okays LNG import from int’l spot market The Cabinet body approved a proposal of the Health Services Division to procure Tk 80,734 cartons of 27 kinds of drugs from the state-owned Essential Drugs Company Limited, for community-based healthcare (CBHC) authority through direct procurement method.

Energy and Mineral Resources Division’s senior secretary Anisur Rahman has said that the government will monitor the implementation of the new price of Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) fixed by the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC). “We will monitor whether the LPG is being sold at the new price fixed by the BERC,” he said while addressing a webinar on “BERC’s LPG Pricing and Its Sustainability” organised by Energy and Power magazine on Saturday. The energy secretary’s remarks came against the backdrop of BERC’s announcement to fix the price of LPG with effect from April 12. As per the new prices, the private companies will have to sell a 12 kg LPG at Tk 975 while LP Gas Company Ltd, the state-owned company, will sell its 12.5 kg LPG at Tk 591 at the retail level. Also read: Pvt companies’ 12 kg LPG price fixed at Tk 975, govt’s 12.5 kg at Tk 591 But many consumers apprehend that they will not get the LPG at the prices fixed by the regulator as there is no strict monitoring by the government about its enforcement. The energy secretary said that due to lockdown situation, it is not possible for them to strictly monitor whether the LPG is being sold at the BERC-fixed price or not. “But after lockdown, we will be going for strict monitoring and it will be the duty of the all the concerned agencies of the government to implement the new LPG price”. Before the price fixing by BERC, the private companies had been selling 12 kg LPG in the retail markets at Tk 1100 -Tk 1200 while those of the state-owned company over Tk 700. Also read: ‘Stop meddling in LPG price fixing process’ About 20 private companies have been operating in the market with more than 95 percent market share by annually importing 1.2 million metric tons of bulk LPG from mainly Middle-East while the state-owned LP Gas Company is locally producing 25,000 MTs of LPG from locally produced condensates at different gas fields. The webinar was also addressed by energy experts Dr M Tamim, Dr Ijaz Ahmed, BERC member Syed Mokbul-e-Elahi, and Bashirul Haque. Bashundhara LPG’s Head of Marketing Zaharia Jalal made a presentation on the issue. He said that many costs of LPG business were not considered by the BERC while fixing this price. Also read: BERC moves to set LPG price at retail level “As a result, the LPG operators will face trouble to make the price sustainable,” he said. Dr M Tamim said that the BERC should have declared a pricing formula instead of fixing a price in the market. “If a formula was declared, it would have been more effective to regulate the price,” he added.

The government will import 350,000 metric tons of rice more in the coming days as the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs gave its nod in principle to a proposal of the Directorate General of Food on Wednesday.

Finally, Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) has moved to appoint a consultant for its proposed LPG terminal project at under-construction Matarbari Deep Sea Port.