Purchase of mother tanker under PPP awaits govt nod

Express (August 19, 2011)

A proposal to procure a mother tanker for the Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (BSC) under the initiative of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) is awaiting cabinet's nod, sources said.

The ministry of shipping (MoS) has recently sent the proposal to the cabinet division for decision as the BSC is facing problem to carry oil due to the lack of a mother tanker.

The 10-year old tanker to be bought at a price of Tk 3.5 billion will have 15-year lifetime. A new tanker with 25-year lifetime costs some Tk 7.0 billion.

Sources said that four companies have expressed interest to collaborate collaboration with the government to procure the mother oil tanker for the BSC. The companies are: BLT & VLT, J S Steel, Eastern Ocean Ltd and Norvic Ocean Ltd.

BSC Managing Director Commodore Moqsumul Quader told the FE Thursday: "We have sent all the documents for PPP initiatives to buy a mother tanker. The tanker is very much necessary for us and buying of a 10-year old tanker will save huge public money."

"We could have bought 4 to 5 other types of ships with the money. But we wanted to make a good start," he said.

Mr Quader said the tanker will be procured from any oil exporting countries or from USA, Korea, China or Japan.

A MoS official said the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation is now importing fuel oil hiring foreign vessels which causes loss of huge foreign currency for the country.

Statistics show that the BPC pays some Tk 1.7 billion to foreign vessels annually as carrying cost of imported fuel.

According to the proposal, under the PPP initiative the BSC will invest 30 per cent of the total cost of the tanker and the private sector will provide the rest.

At present there are 13 ships in the BSC fleet which the BSC officials claim to be outdated and need to be replaced by next three years.

The BSC plans to purchase six ships at a cost of Tk 13 billion. The vessels include product carriers, bulk carriers and container ship.

The corporation has plan to remove two age-old lighterage tankers--MT Banglar Jyoti and MT Banglar Sourav from its fleet as the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has prohibited the single-hull ships to ply on the international routes after December 2010.

Established in 1972, the BSC is entrusted with the responsibility of bulk cargo carrying, chartering and tramping service , feeder service, crude oil carrying and lightening, food grain carrying and lightening , agency service and ship repair.