Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) will import about 1.1 million tonnes of fuel oil worth $429 million from Malaysia, a senior official said on Monday.
"We are expecting approval of the government purchase committee soon to place order to buy the oil from Malaysia's state-run oil company Petronas ," said Anwarul Karim, chairman of state-managed BPC, the lone oil importer and distributor of oil in Bangladesh.
The fuel -- including 940,000 tonnes of octane, 120,000 tonnes of kerosene and 20,000 tonnes of jet fuel -- is needed to meet Bangladesh's demand during the second half (January-June) of the current fiscal year, he said.
Karim told Reuters that Bangladesh's oil imports would rise by at least 35 percent to 4.85 million tonnes in the 2010-11 fiscal year, from 3.6 million tonnes in the previous year.
The rise is mainly due to higher demand of oil-fired power plants, officials said.
