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India has started pumping diesel to Bangladesh through the Bangladesh India Friendship Pipeline amid concerns over fuel availability triggered by ongoing tensions in the Middle East.
Officials from the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation BPC confirmed that the transfer began at 3:20pm on Tuesday (March 9), with diesel flowing from Numaligarh Refinery Limited in Assam to the Parbatipur depot in Dinajpur.
The current shipment of 5,000 tonnes is expected to take approximately 44 hours to complete, with the process likely to conclude by Wednesday evening. Bangladesh receives around 113 tonnes of diesel per hour through the pipeline, according to BPC officials.
The 131 kilometre cross border pipeline connects the Siliguri Marketing Terminal in India to the Parbatipur depot in Dinajpur and has an annual transportation capacity of around 200,000 tonnes of diesel.
Inaugurated in March 2023 during the tenure of the previous Hasina government, the pipeline was designed to reduce transportation time and costs. Before its operation, diesel from Numaligarh Refinery had been imported via railway wagons since 2016.
Under a bilateral agreement, India is expected to supply Bangladesh with 180,000 tonnes of diesel annually through the pipeline. For 2026, India is scheduled to deliver 120,000 tonnes.
BPC Chairman Muhammad Rezanur Rahman told ANI News that the current consignment is part of the existing agreement. "According to the agreement, at least 90,000 tonnes of diesel should be imported to Bangladesh within six months. We hope that within the next two months, we will bring in the total diesel amount for the entire six months," he said.
On Sunday, discussions were held between Finance Minister Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury and Indian High Commissioner Pranay Verma at the Secretariat, focusing on a proposal to supply an additional 50,000 tonnes of diesel over the next four months via the pipeline.
In a separate meeting the same day involving Verma, the finance minister and Energy Minister Iqbal Hassan Mahmood Tuku, Bangladesh also expressed interest in accessing the existing optional supply of 60,000 tonnes under the bilateral agreement.
The pipeline transfer comes as Bangladesh faces growing pressure on fuel supplies due to global instability and heightened demand amid local distribution challenges.
