Cargo with 22,000 tonnes of jet fuel docks at Ctg port
The entire cargo is expected to be unloaded by Sunday
Bringing temporary relief to the country's aviation sector, a PetroChina cargo reached the Chittagong Port with 22000 tonnes of jet fuel on Friday (29 December).
Confirming the matter, Anupam Barua, director (marketing) of the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), told The Business Standard that the cargo brought a total of 32,000 tonnes of fuel oil, including the jet fuel.
"The jet fuel will be unloaded and supplied to the country's airports," he said.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
Meanwhile, a BPC official said jet fuel management company Padma Oil Company has already begun offloading the oil onto the lighter vessel.
"First, 1,500 tonnes of jet fuel was unloaded in a lighter ship bound for Godnail in Narayanganj. The lighter cargo is expected to reach the Godnail depot by 3:00 pm on Saturday," said the official.
Apart from this, 4,000 tonnes of jet fuel was being unloaded in two other ships. The entire cargo is expected to be unloaded by Sunday.
Earlier on Thursday (28 December), TBS reported that the shortage of aviation fuel was expected to temporarily ease, with 22,000 tonnes of jet fuel from international supplier PetroChina.
According to BPC officials, the demand for the next 15 days can be met with the new fuel. However, due to the dollar crisis, they think the crisis may re-emerge in the future.
Anupam Barua had said as of Thursday, their jet fuel stocks matched the demand until 31 December.
The newly scheduled supply from PetroChina was initially set for 26 December but faced a delay for "some reasons", he said.
A top Energy Division official, however, said jet fuel reserves had declined as several international suppliers suspended scheduled deliveries due to unpaid dues.
"The new supply is arriving after international suppliers were urgently paid $10 million to address the situation," the official added.
According to a BPC report, as of December 12, the corporation owed five international suppliers a total of $296 million, including Unipec ($42.44 million), Vitol ($105.08 million), ENOC ($14.40 million), BSP ($70.48 million), PTLCL ($48.28 million), and PetroChina ($15.28 million).
Unipec and PC SG (PetroChina) have warned that they will not supply fuel in the future without receiving their dues.
Padma Oil Company Limited, responsible for jet fuel management and airport supplies on behalf of BPC, informed them in a letter on 24 December that they had only 9,021 tonnes of jet fuel in stock, sufficient to meet demand until 29 December.
The letter recommended an urgent import of 15,000 tonnes of aircraft fuel by then and requested measures to import 45,500 to 50,000 tonnes of jet fuel for each month of January and February.
