Kathmandu, November 14

A two-member team of Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) the state-owned petroleum supply monopoly left for Bangladesh today to explore the potential of importing liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from there.

The NOC team includes Mukunda Ghimire, chief of LPG Department and Birendra Goit, head of the Engineering Department. They are scheduled to begin talks with Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation from tomorrow and it is reported that officials of the Nepal Embassy in Bangladesh will also participate in the talks.

As per Sushil Bhattarai, acting deputy managing director of NOC, the Nepali delegation is also going to discuss the possibilities of immediately airlifting aviation turbine fuel (ATF). While international airlines have been barred from refuelling in Kathmandu, Nepal Airlines the national flag carrier has been supplying ATF to NOC by airlifting the fuel from Kolkata.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), as per the request of the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies, had written to Bangladesh government seeking support to import cooking fuel from there a week ago, as the country has been reeling under a severe crisis of LPG along with the disruption in supply lines from India.

India has cut over 90 per cent of the supply of petroleum products to Nepal citing security concerns in supplying goods due to protests in the Tarai region. Subsequently, India had also warned its truckers and freight forwarding companies about insecurity in Nepal.

However, apart from Birgunj (Raxaul), other border points continue to remain peaceful and are open for business.

Till date, the country has been entirely reliant on India for supply of petroleum products, including cooking gas. Short supply from India has created a severe problem in the country since last month and the nearing winter season will bring further challenges to the government in ensuring sufficient supply of cooking fuel as demand peaks.

The country has never imported petroleum products from Bangladesh via land route. Nepal and Bangladesh use over 52 km of Indian territory to and from Kakadvitta (Nepali border) to Banglabandha (inland port in northern Bangladesh) for trade.

And both the countries have signed double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA) and bilateral trade agreements to provide preferential market access to numerous goods in the markets of each other’s countries.

The government is exploring the option of importing cooking gas from Bangladesh because it would be difficult to import the same from China due to the challenging terrain. The government has inked petroleum purchase deal with China National United Oil Corporation (PetroChina) to import petroleum products from there.

“It would be difficult to bring a gas bullet (which normally carries 18 tonnes of cooking gas) from China through the existing road infrastructure,” a highly placed source at NOC said.

Nepal has been bringing China-government granted petrol from Kyirong in tankers with 12-kilolitre capacity.

The NOC team will return to Kathmandu on Wednesday.

Firewood to be distributed

KATHMANDU: The government is preparing to distribute firewood to the denizens of the Valley from Sunday considering the hardships faced by the people due to the shortage of cooking gas.

The Timber Corporation of Nepal (TCN) has already brought 10 trucks of firewood in Kathmandu and it will distribute firewood from Balkumari and Gaushala from Sunday.

One family will be allowed to purchase up to 100 kg of firewood and the government has fixed the rate of Rs 15 per kg of firewood.