India Continues Diesel Supply to Bangladesh via Friendship Pipeline

The India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline was operationalised in 2017. It has been supplying diesel to Bangladesh on a commercial basis from the Numaligarh Refinery Ltd. This diesel supply is part of regular ongoing energy trade between the two countries, a senior official said.

Meanwhile, fuel availability in India is being closely monitored, he added.

"We have started receiving diesel from Monday afternoon at Parbatipur depot in Dinajpur from Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) in Assam through the Bangladesh-India Friendship Pipeline," a Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) spokesman said.

He said it could take nearly 45 hours to pump the 5,000 tonnes of diesel, which is expected to continue until Wednesday evening.

Earlier, Bangladesh said India would send 5,000 tonnes of diesel under a long-term agreement and as part of an annual arrangement to deliver 180,000 tonnes.

India currently has a total capacity for storage of crude oil and petroleum products for 74 days, which can help to tide over disruptions in case of adverse situations such as geopolitical conflicts, the Parliament was informed on Monday.

"The government has established Strategic Petroleum Reserves facilities with a total capacity of 5.33 million metric tonnes (MMT), which can act as a buffer for short-term supply shocks such as geopolitical conflicts. This is meant to provide for about 9.5 days of crude oil requirement. In addition, Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) in the country have storage facilities for crude oil and petroleum products for 64.5 days. Hence, the current total national capacity for storage of crude oil and petroleum products is 74 days," Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Suresh Gopi told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

Further, the government has taken multiple steps to mitigate the risk of supply disruption and to maintain an uninterrupted energy supply chain during geopolitical uncertainties. This includes diversifying crude oil import sources, bypassing conflict zones and strengthening diplomatic engagements with major oil-producing countries and international organisations like the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the International Energy Forum (IEF).

- IANS