The Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has offered Bangladesh a $105 million loan to go towards the cost of renovating its lone state-owned oil refinery, a senior government official said Sunday.
"The IDB has confirmed to us about giving the funds and we will sign a deal with the bank very soon," said Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, secretary of the Finance Ministry's Economic Relations Division.
The 40-year-old Eastern Refinery Ltd, in the port city of Chittagong, has a capacity to refine 1.5 million tonnes of crude oil a year and authorities had been seeking a $300 million loan from the IDB to expand its capacity to 4.5 million tonnes.
Bangladesh imports between 3.4 million and 3.8 million tonnes of fuel products, including about 1.5 million tonnes of crude, a year, officials said.
Energy officials say that in five years, state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation will need to import up to 6.6 million tonnes of fuel and petroleum products annually to meet demand.
The ERL also refines condensates collected from the country's natural gas fields. Bangladesh's condensate production is 5,000 barrels per day.
The country's annual fuel import costs range from $2.5 billion to $3 billion.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.