Bangladesh to hike product imports by 25%  

Bangladesh plans to import more than 1.354 million metric tons of oil products from the Middle East and other Asian countries over July-December, following approval from the Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase. This is about 25% higher compared with the 1.08 million metric` tons it imported in the first half. State-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corp. (BPC) might, however, slash the premium it pays suppliers compared with previous contracts, a senior BPC official said. PetroChina, a subsidiary of China’s largest oil producer and supplier China National Petroleum Corp., has emerged as a new source of fuel oil for BPC, supplying 110,000 metric tons for the first time in the second half of 2010. (August 4, 2010)