Bangladesh to cut oil product imports, boost crude inflows in 2024

State-run Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation is set to reduce its overall petroleum product imports in 2024, amid declining gasoil demand and rising coal demand, a senior BPC official told S&P Global Commodity Insights.

BPC expects to import around 6.51 million mt of refined products during January-December 2024, down 15.34% from 2023, the official added.

Bangladesh is stepping up efforts to reduce its dependence on petroleum products, such as gasoil and high sulfur fuel oil, to generate electricity.

The country already shut six privately owned gasoil-fired power plants, as well as several HSFO-fired power plants, and is relying more on coal and imported LNG for power generation, the BPC official said.

The state-run oil corporation has projected that it would import around 4.29 million mt of 0.005% sulfur gasoil, 630,000 mt of jet A-1 fuel, 350,000 mt of 95 RON gasoline, 1.15 million mt of HSFO with 3.5% sulfur and 90,000 mt of 0.5% sulfur marine fuel in 2024.

According to the BPC official, the company will source around half of its total refined oils through international tenders, and the remaining through government negotiations with state-run oil suppliers across the world.

Separately, Bangladesh's private sector is likely to import around 3.0 million mt of 180 CST high sulfur fuel oil with 3.5% sulfur.

BPC will import around 1.5 million mt of crude oil in 2024, about 7.14% higher than in 2023, the official said.

According to the BPC official, the company has been importing more crude oil thanks to a newly opened single-point mooring facility that can store a significant volume of the feedstock, before it is processed at the Eastern Refinery in Chattogram, Bangladesh's sole refinery.

BPC mainly imports crude from Saudi Aramco and ADNOC.