Petrol pumps suffer loss for dropping sale of fuel

Petrol pump owners in Bangladesh are facing mounting losses in the last two weeks due to the BNP sponsored transport blockade.

That is because of interruption in transportation of all kinds of fuels and the fall in sale as lesser number of motorists are venturing out.

The retailers said they cannot collect oil from the depots regularly fearing arson .

On the another hand, the sale at pumps have fallen because fewer transport are plying during the blockade fearing attacks.

With the help of the police, the pumps in the violence-prone areas have overcome the crisis of collecting oil.

But some pumps on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway, the highways in the northern districts and in greater Sylhet are continuing to face the crisis.

Khaleque and Sons Filling Station on Dhaka-Chittagong highway collects oil regularly from Meghna Petroleum Depot in Chandpur.

Owner of the pump Fakhrul Islam Chowdhury said he could not collect oil from Chandpur for 11 days. The sale also decreased after the blockade started.

"We generally sell an average of 5,000-7,000 litres of petrol, diesel and octane daily. The sale decreased to only 1,000 litres. I'll lose around Tk 300,000 this month if the blockade continues," he said.

The depots in greater Sylhet faced a fuel crisis last week. The situation improved slightly after an oil-laden wagon train from Chittagong reached Sylhet on last Tuesday.

Around 750,000 litres fuel oil reached the Padma, Meghna and Jamuna depots that day and the distribution to the pumps in the region resumed.

Besides, fuel oil is being sent through waterway from Narayanganj's Fatulla.

Bangladesh Petroleum Dealer, Distributor and Petrol Pump Owners Association's Sylhet Division Organising Secretary Mohammad Akhtar Faruq Liton said 167 pumps in four districts of the division were facing the crisis .

But the supply situation got better after the consignment on the oil tanker train arrived on Tuesday.

Besides, the fuel oil produced in the Kailashtila Gas Field meets 20 percent demand of fuel in Sylhet.

But filling station owners in Sunamganj said the sale decreased due to less traffic.

Cynthia Filling Station owner Sajeeb Ranjan Das said the daily demand of fuel oil was between 8,000-10,000 litres. "But we cannot sell more than 2,000-3,000 litres during the blockade. The supply is low, too," he said.

Abdur Rahman, an official of Sohag Filling Station at Gabtoli in Dhaka, also said that the sale dropped.

According to him, the daily sale at the pump decreased from 10,000 litres to 4,000 litres a day.

Mohona Filling Station in the same area is selling 6,000 litres oil a day. Before the blockade, the sale was around 15,000 litres a day, its Manager Ismail Hossain said.

Dinajpur's Parbatipur, Sirajganj's Baghabari and Kurigram's Chilmari depots supply oil to pumps of eight districts in Rangpur division.

Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) Bogra regional control centre's Coordinator Anwarul Islam said the depots had sufficient oil to supply.

Rangpur Petrol Pump Owners Association General Secretary Mostafa Sohrab Chowdhury Titu also said the district was not facing crisis of fuel oil.

But the pump owners and the farmers in the region cannot collect fuel oil on demand due to uncertain security -- and that impacts on the sale directly.

Abdul Matin Dulal, leader of petrol pump owners in 16 districts of Rangpur and Rajshahi, said, "Many pumps are collecting oil with the help of police-BGB while many others are risking it without them."

"But the sale decreased because of a drop in traffic. Moreover, the village level buyers do not have the courage to take the risk to move fuel oil because they fear attacks ," he added.

BPC Stock Sufficient

According to BPC's account given on Tuesday, its depots across Bangladesh had 9,429 ton petrol, 8,300 ton octane, 16,903 ton jet fuel, 298,399 ton diesel and 34,000 ton kerosene in stock.

BPC Director (Marketing) Mir Ali Reza said their 20 depots did not lack stock and what they had was good enough to meet the demand for the next 15-20 days.

He claimed the blockade could not affect the supply much.

The BPC director said fuel oil was supplied from Chittagong to 90 percent areas of Bangladesh through waterways. Of the rest, eight percent was supplied through railways and two percent through roads, he added.

"The blockade could not affect the supply of fuel oil as the waterways remain operational ," he said.