Bangladesh will extend an agreement to import diesel and kerosene from Kuwait for another year to the end of 2008, a senior energy official said.
The import volume may rise next year from a current 2.8 million tonnes a year of refined oil imports from Kuwait, to meet increasing domestic demand, though the official did not give any volume forecast.
'Now the state run Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) will be able to import oil from Kuwait until December 2008,' Muhammad Iqbal Hossain, spokesman of the energy ministry, said.
BPC, the country's lone importer and distributor of fuel, has been buying from Kuwait since 2005 under an agreement with Kuwait Petroleum Corporation.
The imports include 1.6 million tonnes of diesel from Kuwait annually, energy officials said. Diesel and kerosene account for 80 per cent of Bangladesh's fuel consumption, with annual fuel demand at 3.8 million tonnes.
