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Bangladesh has agreed to pay a higher premium for diesel imported from India, at $4.6 per barrel up from $3.9 previously, a senior energy official said on Sunday, reports Reuters.
The higher premium will be attached to some 60,000 tonnes of March imports and cost Bangladesh an additional Taka 20 million ($290,000) during the month, said the official, who asked not to be named.
In fiscal 2004/05 (July-June) Bangladesh imported 200,000 tonnes of diesel from India. Imported diesel and kerosene account for 80 per cent of Bangladesh's fuel consumption.
Bangladesh's total annual demand for fuel is 3.7 million tonnes, of which it imports nearly 2.8 million tonnes from Kuwait and the rest from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and India.
Energy officials said Bangladesh's fuel import cost in 2004-05 (July-June) doubled to $1.56 billion from a year earlier.
They said the fuel import bill this year could rise to $2.0 billion because of spiralling international fuel prices.
Another report by Xinhua adds: An additional 1,200 megawatts of power could be generated through a nuclear power plant in Bangladesh to ease the shortage of electricity in the country, atomic energy experts said.
Officials at the Nuclear Power and Energy Division of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC) said in Dhaka Saturday that the country could produce 1,200 MW of power from a nuclear power plant within four to five years if a nuclear power generation project is undertaken.
They said the country can set up a nuclear reactor with the 600 MW electricity generation capacity that is estimated at a cost of about one billion dollars in the pre-located site at western Pabna district.
After the completion of the first reactor, another reactor could be set up at the same site with same power generation capacity but with half the cost due to all pre-infrastructure support.
In April 2005, China and Bangladesh signed an agreement on nuclear cooperation.
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