India’s leading refiner, Indian Oil Corp, is all set to close its first contract to supply diesel, jet fuel and gasoline to the state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Corp (BPC) by the third quarter of the current fiscal. In a tender issued in this month, BPC has sought 870,000 tonnes of diesel having sulphur content of less than 500 parts per million (ppm), 120,000 tonnes of jet fuel, 20,000 tonnes of 180-centistoke high sulphur fuel oil and 30,000 tonnes of 95-octane gasoline.
Diesel fuel often contains higher quantities of Sulphur and hence oil refineries have been instructed to comply with the emission standards (equivalent to Euro II, Euro III, Euro IV) and reduce the level of sulphur in accord with auto fuel policy brought in effect by the Government of India. IOC emerged as the lowest bidder to supply up to 430,000 tonnes of diesel and 50,000 tonnes of jet fuel during July-December and 30,000 tonnes of gasoline in August and November.
