India's Numaligarh Refinery plans petroleum export to Bangladesh thru waterways
They submitted a proposal to the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) but BPC officials could not be reached for their comment.
In addition to petroleum export through cross-border pipelines, Indian state-owned Numaligarh Refinery Limited is now planning to trade petroleum products to Bangladesh through waterways.
The Assam-based refinery has already submitted a proposal to the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), the lone state-owned importer of fuel oil, for exporting 2 lakh tonnes (1 tonne is equal to 1000 litres) of fuel oil annually for the Sylhet region.
As part of its initiatives, Numaligarh Refinery signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Inland Waterways Authority of India on 24 August, for the transportation of petroleum products to Bangladesh, using the Jogighopa jetty of Assam.
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The refinery envisages the export of 200,000 tonnes of petroleum products per annum to Bangladesh through the upgraded Jogighopa jetty, after the commissioning of its expanded refinery and petrochemicals plant, reports Times of India.
However, BPC officials could not be reached for their comment on the matter despite repeated attempts.
Bangladesh and India inaugurated their first-ever cross-border energy pipeline on 18 March this year to trade fuel oil. The 131.57km pipeline, connecting Siliguri in West Bengal and Parbatipur in Dinajpur, is capable of exporting 10 lakh tonnes of fuel annually to Bangladesh.
During the inauguration, around 90 lakh litres of fuel were imported from India through this pipeline. On 29 July, Numaligarh Refinery supplied 28 lakh litres of diesel to the Parbatipur depot in Dinajpur.
Earlier, around 0.85 million tonnes of diesel were imported annually from India through railways to meet a part of the northern region's total fuel demand, and the rest was delivered through roads and railways.
