Page 50 - Plastics News November 2017

BUSINESS NEWS

Petroleum ministry launches Rs Bangladesh signs gas oil deal

320 crore startup fund with India

n a novel initiative by the petroleum ministry Ten oil angladesh has signed a long-term sales and
Iand gas companies have been launched as a startup Bpurchase agreement with an Indian refiner to
programme for entrepreneurs with a fund corpus of Rs 320 import gas oil to meet the country’s energy demand,
crore to be disbursed over a 3-year period. The scheme officials said. The deal between Bangladesh Petroleum
was launched with memoranda of understanding (MoU) Corp. (BPC) and Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL) was
being signed by 36 startups for partnering with various signed in presence of India’s external affairs minister
state-run firms like Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum and Sushma Swaraj, during her visit to discuss bilateral
GAIL India, which is India’s largest gas transmission utility. issues. Bangladesh Petroleum Corp. will take up to
“The people we are partnering today will establish new 250,000 tonnes of gas oil each year from Numaligarh
Refinery to BPC’s northern fuel depot via a 131-km
pipeline, which will be built by India. Under the
deal, BPC will take up to 250,000 tonnes of gas oil
each year from NRL for the first three years of the
deal to the BPC’s northern fuel depot via a 131-km
(79 mile) pipeline, which will be built by India. The
import volume will be increased in line with demand,
a senior BPC official said, adding the deal would come
into effect when the pipeline is built.
BPC will pay a premium of $5.50 per barrel over
Middle East quotes under the 15-year deal, up from
benchmarks for India. We have to go for out of the box the current premiums of $2.20 a barrel for gas oil
thinking and disruptive frameworks,” petroleum minister cargoes it receives by tanker through the country’s
Dharmendra Pradhan said. Pradhan, who has recently been south-eastern port of Chittagong, the official said.
elevated to cabinet rank and given additional charge of “The premium is cost-effective as there is no added
the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, cost as the supply will be delivered to the deport in
said India could not afford to miss out on the ongoing the northern part,” the BPC official said. NRL already
Industrial Revolution 4.0 that signifies the changes being supplies a small volume to state-owned BPC for the
wrought by information technology. He pointed out that country’s northern region.The refinery, located in
being the third largest energy consumer in the world with the eastern Indian state of Assam, will supply around
an annual oil import bill of Rs 7 lakh crore, India urgently
needed to act on import substitution.

“Oil import substitution can best come through alternate
fuels, which can only be developed through innovation and
new business models,” the minister said. This programme
is based on the premise that “oil and gas companies have
the required technical acumen and financial strength
to act as venture capitalists to talented entrepreneurs
who wish to build businesses,” he added. Some of the
innovative projects that signed the partnership with 22,000 tonnes of gas oil with a sulphur content of
the ministry include for developing multiuse fuel from 500 parts per million (ppm) between October and
agri-waste, remotely operated vehicles for underwater December by railroad, BPC officials said. BPC received
inspections, converting waste plastic to high value fuels, its first batch this month under the three-month
electronic leak detector for LPG and solar cookers. agreement.

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