STAFF REPORTER
United Arab Emirates (UAE) has expressed its interest to work with Bangladesh in producing jet fuel from condensate through using newer technology.During a bilateral meeting with the State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid, the UAE Ambassador to Bangladesh Dr Saeed Bin Hajar Al-Shehi expressed about UAE’s interest in doing so.
The meeting which took place at the Secretariat office of the State Minister was also attended by Nazim Uddin Chowdhury, Secretary of Energy and Mineral Resources Division, Saif Humaid Al Falsi, Group CEO of Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC) amd Moiz Salim General Manager of Singapore office of ENOC.
During the meeting, the State Minister said that the UAE is a trusted friend of Bangladesh. He said that Bangladesh has lots of scope for investment and he requested the UAE delegation to invest in Bangladesh.
The UAE delegation expressed their interest to invest in producing jet fuel from condensate. It is to be noted that the Bangladesh government has already started exporting condensate as it cannot store the condensate in the storages which are occupied with imported furnace oil.
According to the information of Petrobangla, the country’s annual production of condensate increased by over 70 per cent, mainly after Chevron Bangladesh set up a liquid recovery unit at Bibiyana gas field towards the end of 2014.
In the 2013-14 financial year, the state-owned and international oil companies extracted some 321,000 tonnes of condensate, and the quantity increased to 360,000 tonnes the following fiscal year.
Energy division estimated the extraction of condensate would rise to 560,000 tonnes in the ongoing fiscal 2015-16.
Expressing the interest to produce jet fuel from this condensate the UAE delegation said that the two countries can work together on this venture.
During the meeting, the UAE delegation also discussed about jet refueling, production of lubricant through joint venture, LNG import and construction of LNG terminal in Bangladesh.
