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.

Consumers may experience trouble in gas supply from Monday to Wednesday due to disruption in delivery of imported liquefied natural gas (LNG).   Read: Gas supply to stop in some city areas Tuesday Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd said consumers may experience disruption or low pressure in gas supply from June 14-16 as unloading of LNG from  ships is being disrupted due to inclement weather. Read: Areas in Dhaka where gas supply to be suspended Sunday “This creates disturbance in supply of 400 million cubic feet of gas per day (mmcfd) to the transmission system”, it said, adding that consumers of different groups including households, industries, power plants and commercial users may suffer. Read: Summit Power installs heavy-duty gas turbine at Meghnaghat plant The Titas Gas regrets the inconveniences of its consumers, it added.