5,000 tonnes of diesel coming from India via pipeline

Amid the ongoing global disruptions due to the Iran war in the Middle East, 5,000 tonnes of diesel are coming to Bangladesh from India through a pipeline.

According to Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) sources, this diesel is expected to reach the Parbatipur depot in Dinajpur from the Numaligarh refinery in India’s Assam through the Bangladesh-India Friendship Pipeline.

Muhammad Morshed Hossain Azad, general manager of the Commerce and Operations Department at BPC, said on Tuesday: "The pumping started yesterday, at 3:20 pm on Monday. It takes about 44 hours to bring in about 5,000 metric tonnes of diesel."

He said, "We are pumping about 113 tonnes of oil here every hour. Accordingly, the supply is expected to be completed by tomorrow evening."

The Bangladesh-India Friendship Pipeline is about 131km long and stretches from Siliguri Marketing Terminal in India to the Parbatipur Depot in Dinajpur. Diesel is transported directly through the pipeline.

This inter-country pipeline was inaugurated in March 2023. Initially, this pipeline has a capacity to transport about 200,000 tonnes of diesel per year.

Before the pipeline was launched, diesel had been brought to Bangladesh from the Numaligarh Refinery in India through rail wagons since 2016. After the pipeline was launched, energy sector officials said that transportation time and cost would be reduced by the direct connection to the Parbatipur depot.

In a meeting held at the Secretariat on Sunday between Finance Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury and Indian High Commissioner to Dhaka Pranay Verma, a proposal to supply an additional 50,000 tonnes of diesel over the next four months through the Bangladesh-India Friendship Pipeline was discussed.