Dhaka: State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid on Wednesday said crude oil would be refined in the country as Bangladesh is now self-reliant in petrol production.

‘The state-run Eastern Refinery Limited (ERL) would refine 4.5 million tonnes of crude oil per annum,’ he said this during a contract signing ceremony at his ministry in the capital city.

He also said the government has decided not to cut fuel price right now as it is on the uptrend on the global market.

‘No fuel price adjustment right now as the price is going up on the global market. The World Bank has also made a forecast about its uptrend in the coming days,’ he told reporters.

Nasrul Hamid made the remarks while briefing the journalists about a deal signed between Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) and France-based Technip for designing a new unit of state-owned Eastern Refinery Limited (ERL) at his ministry conference room, reports uNB.

The junior minister’s remark came in contrast to Finance Minister AMA Muhith’s earlier assurance saying that a downward adjustment in the petroleum price will be made within January.

Clarifying the latest stance, Nasrul said his ministry had written to the government’s policymaking level to reduce the fuel price. But, the government has taken the decision not to reduce the price due to the latest global market trend.

On the global market, crude petroleum was selling $52.76 per barrel on Wednesday from earlier below $50 last week.      

Defending the government’s decision, Hamid said the fuel price will not be adjusted as the desired benefit of the measure will not go to the common people. ‘Earlier, we had adjusted fuel price. But, transport fare was not reduced and people didn’t get the benefit.’

He also said still the BPC’s outstanding payment with the government is about Tk 17,000 crore which was given to the state-own enterprise in the past as a support.

Nasrul said the government is making profit from diesel and octane sale, though it is negligible in diesel, but it looks huge due to its enormous quantity.

At the contract signing ceremony, the state minister said Technip will do a front-end engineering design (FEED) first for the ERL unit -2 under an unsolicited contract of $46.47 million.

Indian company Engineers India Ltd (EIL) was appointed as contractor for the project.

The new ERL unit will have production the capacity of 3 million metric tons per annum while the capacity of first unit, built by the same company in 1986, is 1.5 million metric tons.

The function was also addressed by French Ambassador in Dhaka Mrs Sophie Aubert and Energy Secretary Nazimuddin Chowdhury.