NRL enters diesel export pact with Bangladesh

State-run Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL) today said it has signed a 15-year agreement with Bangladesh Petroleum Corp (BPC) for export of diesel to the neighbouring nation, a company release said.
"In a historic development, Numaligarh Refinery Ltd inked a 15-year long term sale and purchase agreement with BPC for export of gas oil (diesel) to Bangladesh," the company said in the statement.
The agreement was signed between NRL Managing Director P Padmanabhan and BPC Chairman A H Rahmatul Muneem in presence of India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj at Dhaka yesterday, it added.
"Under the deal, BPC will initially take up to 0.25 million metric tonne per annum (MMTPA)) of gas oil from NRL for the first three years via the proposed 133-km Indo-Bangla Friendship Pipeline (IBFPL) with a capacity of 1 MMTPA," the company said.

The export quantity will be increased gradually from 0.25 MMTPA to 0.40 MMTPA over a period of 15 years and will come into effect after the pipeline is built, it added.
"The aforesaid deal with NRL is Bangladesh's first long-term agreement with any Indian oil company," the Assam-based petroleum firm said.

Earlier, India and Bangladesh had entered into a new era of petroleum trade with a goodwill train, flagged off by the Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in March 2016, from NRL's Siliguri marketing terminal to the neighbouring country.
In April 2017, another railway rake containing diesel from NRL's Siliguri marketing terminal to BPC's Parbitipur depot was flagged off by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina through remote device from New Delhi.

A few more railway rakes have been dispatched from NRL to BPC during the intervening period.