India and Bangladesh enter into a new trade petroleum agreement
India and Bangladesh has entered into a new age of petroleum trade, when a train loaded with High Speed Diesel is making its way to Bangladesh starting Thursday.
The 42 wagon train is carrying around 2500 metric tons of High Speed Diesel. It was inaugurated by Indian Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday at Siliguri Marketing Terminal of Numaligarh Refineries Limited (NRL) in West Bengal.
The rail shipment will travel over 516 km from Siliguri to Parbitipur in Bangladesh, which would be received by H V Shringla, High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh and Hamid, Hon'ble Minister of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, Government of Bangladesh.
Pradhan said, “This consignment is a symbolic gesture of friendship and cooperation that exists.” According to the officials in Numaligarh Refinery Limited, this would the first big petroleum container load from India to Bangladesh.
In June 2015, both Bangladesh and India embraced the Sale- Purchase agreement signed between Bangladesh Petroleum Limited (BPC) and NRL. The joint initiative for the construction of 135km long pipeline, which would have a potential capacity of 1 million metric tons per annum is also included in the agreement.
Bangladesh is meeting its present requirement of petroleum products shipped into the port at Chittagong. From there petroleum is dispersed all over the country. However, the import from India is a very cost effective one for Bangladesh.
Also a point to be noted is that NRL refinery underwent an expansion from 3 MMPTA to 9 MMPTA. With this India will have enough stock to meet the diesel demands of Bangladesh.
March 18, 2016 | 04:10pm IST
to success.