Saudi Arabia's Hi-Tech International Group (HTIG) is considering investing $2.0 billion to build a refinery in Bangladesh, an official from the cash-strapped South Asian country said on Sunday. Yasin S. Indarkiri, HTIG's chairman, discussed the investment plan with the energy ministry and the country's Board of Investment on Saturday, State Minister for Energy and Mineral Resources A.K.M. Moosharraf Hossain told Reuters "He proposed setting up an oil refinery at Chittagong port and we have welcomed it," Mosharraf said.
The refinery in Bangladesh's main port city would have capacity of 200,000 barrels per day, making it the country's largest single-sector investment, he said.
Indian industrial giant Tata has proposed $2.0 billion in investment in Bangladesh steel, power and fertiliser sectors.
The refinery would produce as much as nine million tonnes of refined petroleum products annually, such as LPG (liquefied petroleum gas), gasoline, kerosene, aviation turbine fuel, gas oil and furnace oil, the minister said.
At present, the country's sole refinery, state-run Eastern Refinery Limited, has an estimated annual capacity of 1.5 million tonnes of crude oil, compared with estimated annual demand of up to 3.2 million tonnes, officials said.
It has been receiving about $1.5 billion annually from the World Bank in development assistance for the last few years, and has attracted only $3 billion foreign direct investment since 1971.
"The chairman informed us that they will import crude oil from Saudi Arabia and will sell it in Bangladesh and also will export to other countries," Mosharraf said.
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