LPG export to India resumes next week

Beximco LPG, a private liquefied petroleum gas operator, will resume export to northeast India by the end of this month after a nearly 21-month snap forced by the coronavirus pandemic.

 An Indian Oil Corporation Bangladesh official told The Business Post that imports would start again within December. There was a tender for this import last year. 

Every year there will be a fresh tender for the following year. 

 The official declined to disclose the LPG price, saying it was determined by tender.

 Apart from Beximco LPG, two other private operators -- Omera LPG and BM Energy (BD) Ltd (brand name BM LP Gas) -- will export a total of 30 kilotons (KT) of LPG by road to India’s northeast. 

 According to Beximco LPG, it will export the LPG to Tripura. The LPG-carrying tankers will take the fuel to Bishalgarh through Bangladesh’s Bibirbazar land border point of Cumilla.

 Indian Oil Corporation Ltd’s (IOCL) will bottle the LPG at its Bishalgarh plant and market the product used primarily for cooking purposes. The company says there is no non-tariff barrier in the initial stage from the Indian side.

 Northeast Indian states Arunachal, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura have a population of around 60 million.

 The country is interested in importing LPG from Bangladesh as the cost of transporting LPG is high to the landlocked northeast. Market insiders say they hope the LPG export market will grow in the future.

 Mehedi Hasan, Chief Marketing Officer of Beximco LPG, told The Business Post, “It is a proud moment for Beximco LPG to be one of the first LPG exporters from Bangladesh.

It is a great opportunity for the nation and we are hopeful that this will serve as a platform for future explorations into other hydrocarbon export to India.”

Omera LPG and BM Energy (BD) officials could not be reached for comments.

 State-run IOCL is importing LPG from Bangladesh under a deal signed between the two countries on October 5, 2019, during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s India visit.

 The IOCL decided to import 2,500 tonnes of LPG for 2020 without tender and on a trial basis. Beximco LPG and Omera LPG sent 500 tonnes in January in the first shipment but exports stopped in March due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

 Later, the IOCL floated a tender for 2021 with a requirement of 30KT LPG and chose three operators from Bangladesh.