The cabinet committee on government purchase at a meeting on Thursday approved an Energy Division proposal to procure 1 lakh tonnes of diesel without any tender, citing the ongoing war in the Middle East as the reason.

Presided over by finance and planning minister Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury at the Jatiya Sangsad in the capital Dhaka, the meeting decided to procure the most consumed petroleum product at a cost of Tk 1,757.9 crore from Japanese company Mazda Oil Co Ltd under the direct purchase method due to emergency needs.

Earlier, the committee approved the Energy Division’s proposals to procure 10.25 lakh tonnes of different types of petroleum products under the direct purchase method after the initial import contracts under the six-month schedule between January and June for the procurement of over 30 lakh tonnes of crude and refine petroleum products were affected mostly due to the war.

Energy Division officials said that the imports of fuel oils under the new endorsements would take more than two months to reach the country.

Among the others proposals approved by the committee on Thursday included the procurement of 9,000 tonnes of lentil, 35,000 tonnes of fertiliser and the appointment of contractors to explore gas.

Sinopec International Petroleum Service Corporation of China will explore Sylhet well no 12 on a turnkey basis after winning the bid at Tk 232.7 crore.

Under the other proposal, the committee approved the drilling of two gas exploration wells — Srikail Deep-1 and Mobarakpur Deep-1 — out of the three-well programme that also includes Fenchuganj South-1.

The contract on a turnkey basis for drilling the two wells has been awarded to CNPC Chuanqing Drilling Engineering Company Ltd of China at Tk 713.64 crore under the international tender floated by state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited.

The country has been facing a shortage of natural gas due to falling production from the domestic fields, forcing the government to import natural gas since 2019.

The committee also approved import of 35,000 tonnes of muriate of potash from Russia under the state-to-state arrangement at Tk 156.7 crore and 9,000 tonnes of lentil in three equal lots at Tk 72.53 crore through the local tender.

Two lots will to be supplied by M/S Salman Khurshid of Rajshahi and the rest one by Shabnam Vegetable Oil Industries.