The government has assured that there will be no fuel crisis in the country over the next two months.
“As I mentioned earlier, the current stock of octane and petrol is sufficient to meet demand for at least the next two months. I can assure that we have adequate reserves,” Spokesperson for the Energy and Mineral Resources Division Monir Hossain Chowdhury told reporters at a press briefing on Wednesday.
Some 5 lakh litres of illegally hoarded fuel have recently been recovered and the country currently has adequate reserves to meet demand, said Monir, also Joint Secretary (Operations).
Currently, 1.01,385 tonnes of diesel, 77,546 tonnes of furnace oil, 31,821 tonnes of octane, 18,211 tonnes of petrol and 18,223 tonnes of jet fuel are in stock, he said.
The government has been actively securing fuel from multiple sources amid rapidly changing global conditions, particularly due to ongoing conflicts affecting supply routes, he said.
On the crude oil supply situation, Monir said the country’s only state-owned refinery, Eastern Refinery Limited (ERL), processes around 1.5 million metric tonnes of crude oil annually which accounts for roughly one-fifth of the total fuel demand.
Crude oil imports mainly from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been disrupted due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz amid the ongoing conflict, he said.
As a result, scheduled shipments in March and April could not be delivered, he said.
However, existing reserves have allowed operations at ERL to continue on a limited scale, he added.
“We have four units at ERL and currently two are operating at full capacity. A new shipment of crude oil is expected to depart from Yanbu port in Saudi Arabia around April 20 and may arrive by the end of April or early May,” he said.
Despite temporary disruptions at the refinery, fuel supply remains stable as Bangladesh relies heavily on imported refined oil, he said.
ERL’s disruptions do not significantly impact the overall supply chain since we already have sufficient refined fuel in stock, he added.