Energy traders Unipec and Vitol are set to win a tender placed by Bangladesh Petroleum Corp (BPC) to buy up to 1.06 million tonnes of oil products in the first half of 2020 after placing the lowest offers, a BPC official said on Friday.
The state-owned company is seeking 760,000-880,000 tonnes of gasoil with a sulphur content of 500 parts per million, 110,000 tonnes of jet fuel, 40,000 tonnes of 180-centistoke high-sulphur fuel oil and 30,000 tonnes of 95-octane gasoline.
“Unipec and Vitol will win the tender as they came up with the lowest bids,” a senior BPC official said on condition of anonymity.
The oil products are due for delivery from Jan. 1 to June 30, 2020, the tender document showed.
Six traders competed for the tender, the BPC official confirmed.
Unipec - a trading arm of Chinese state major Sinopec - placed the lowest offer for up to 450,000 tonnes of gasoil and 60,000 tonnes of jet fuel at premiums to Middle East quotes of $2.33 and $3.32 a barrel on a cost-and-freight basis respectively, the official said.
The Asian unit of trading house Vitol submitted the lowest offers for the remaining oil products, which included up to 430,000 tonnes of gasoil, 50,000 tonnes of jet fuel, 40,000 tonnes of fuel oil and 30,000 tonnes of gasoline.
Vitol offered a premium of $2.20 a barrel for gasoil, $3.30 a barrel for jet fuel, $24.98 a tonne for fuel oil and $5.43 a barrel for gasoline.
BPC had also awarded Unipec and Vitol a similar import tender to supply nearly 1.35 million tonnes of oil products in the second half of 2019.
BPC resumed issuing tenders for long-term contracts in 2016 as part of efforts to buy at cheaper rates after a 15-year hiatus, during which it negotiated directly with suppliers of fuel products.
Bangladesh typically imports about 3.2 million tonnes of diesel and 2.5 million tonnes of fuel oil annually, making it one of the top 10 importers for those fuels in Asia.
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