DHAKA: Bangladesh is struggling to pay for imported gas due to a greenback scarcity, letters reviewed by Reuters present, with the state petroleum firm owing over $300 million because it faces an “alarming lower in gas reserves”. All import and advertising and marketing of gas within the nation of almost 170 million individuals is managed by Bangladesh Petroleum Corp, which has requested the federal government to allow home industrial banks to settle dues with India in rupees.
The nation’s greenback reserves have shrunk greater than a 3rd since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February final 12 months to face at a seven-year low of about $30.2 billion by Could 17. Closely reliant on power imports, Bangladesh is grappling with energy cuts ensuing from a gas scarcity which have harm its exports-oriented clothes trade.
“Attributable to a scarcity of overseas foreign money/{dollars} within the home market and the central financial institution not assembly demand for US {dollars}, industrial banks are unable to pay for imports on time,” BPC advised the energy ministry in a Could 9 letter. That adopted a warning in a letter in April that mentioned, “If it is not doable to import gas in line with the import schedule ready for Could, provide could also be disrupted all through the nation with an alarming lower in gas reserves.”
The ministry, BPC and the central financial institution didn’t reply to calls to hunt remark. BPC imports 500,000 tonnes of refined oil and 100,000 tonnes of crude oil each month. The April letter mentioned many gas suppliers had both despatched fewer cargoes than scheduled or threatened to halt provides. Collectors included Unipec, the buying and selling arm of China’s state-owned Sinopec, Vitol, ENOC, Indian Oil Corp, PetroChina and Indonesia’s BSP, it mentioned. “A number of firms are threatening to cease provides whereas others are sending fewer cargoes than deliberate,” mentioned a BPC supply.
The nation’s greenback reserves have shrunk greater than a 3rd since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February final 12 months to face at a seven-year low of about $30.2 billion by Could 17. Closely reliant on power imports, Bangladesh is grappling with energy cuts ensuing from a gas scarcity which have harm its exports-oriented clothes trade.
“Attributable to a scarcity of overseas foreign money/{dollars} within the home market and the central financial institution not assembly demand for US {dollars}, industrial banks are unable to pay for imports on time,” BPC advised the energy ministry in a Could 9 letter. That adopted a warning in a letter in April that mentioned, “If it is not doable to import gas in line with the import schedule ready for Could, provide could also be disrupted all through the nation with an alarming lower in gas reserves.”
The ministry, BPC and the central financial institution didn’t reply to calls to hunt remark. BPC imports 500,000 tonnes of refined oil and 100,000 tonnes of crude oil each month. The April letter mentioned many gas suppliers had both despatched fewer cargoes than scheduled or threatened to halt provides. Collectors included Unipec, the buying and selling arm of China’s state-owned Sinopec, Vitol, ENOC, Indian Oil Corp, PetroChina and Indonesia’s BSP, it mentioned. “A number of firms are threatening to cease provides whereas others are sending fewer cargoes than deliberate,” mentioned a BPC supply.
