The ongoing fuel oil supply shortage in Bangladesh against the backdrop of the growing conflicts in the Gulf region deepened on Wednesday, said consumers.

Many of the filling stations in the capital Dhaka remained closed while consumers made long queues at the filling stations, which were open, to take fuel.

On Tuesday, the second day after lifting the rationing on Sunday, the crisis over availability of fuel oils in the capital’s filling stations eased slightly.

On Wednesday, a motorcyclist at a filling station on Kazi Nazrul Avenue said that he had been waiting for an hour, but could not even go close of the station.

Before reaching the filling station, he said that he visited three other stations but found them closed.

Filling station operators said that demand for petrol and octane jumped on the day at stations selling fuel oils as majority of the stations remained closed or operated briefly.

Wednesday’s was the second day of a weeklong public holiday for celebrating Eid-ul-Fitr, one of the biggest religious festivals of the Muslims.

State-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation lifted rationing of fuel oils on the consumer end on Sunday after running it for nine days to check hoarding.

Filling station operators said that rationing on the supply end by the BPC was still persisting.

The BPC met half of the demand made by the petrol pump owners, said Md Mizanur Rahman, former general secretary of the Bangladesh Petrol Pump Owners Association.

BPC officials said that they complied with directives from the energy power and mineral resources ministry for saving energy and curbing the scope for hoarding.

Fuel oils have been supplied as per data on demand during March in the past year, they said.

BPC officials said that depots at Godnail and Fatulla in Narayanganj would remain closed on Eid-ul-Fitr day and the following day.

Eid-ul-Fitr will be celebrated in the country on March 20 or 21, subject to the sighting of the moon.

Officials said that they would supply diesel of 12,777 tonnes, petrol 1,496 tonnes and octane 1,193 tonnes daily between March 23 and March 25.

Bangladesh imported about 62 lakh tonnes of fuel oils in 2024-25, with about 63 per cent of those diesel and 12 per cent petrol and octane.

On February 28, the joint-strike by the United States and Israel on Iran and retaliation by Tehran and subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz have been interrupting the movement of vessels with fuel oils.

Daily 20 per cent of the global energy passes through the Strait, a 23-kilometre narrow sea-line between Iran and Oman.