The price of bottled soybean oil has been hiked by Tk 4 on the other hand the price of loose soybean oil reduced by Tk 2 per litre. State Minister for Commerce Ahasanul Islam said this at a press briefing at the secretariat on Thursday (April 18). According to the new decision, price of bottled soybean oil hiked to Tk 167 from Tk 163 per litre. The State Minister said that the price of loose soybean oil has been reduced to Tk 147 from Tk 149 per liter. However, the price of bottled soybean oil has been increased from Tk 163. This price will be effective from tomorrow. Earlier, on Monday Bangladesh Vegetable Oil Refiners & Vanaspati Manufacturers proposed the government to raise the price of soybean oil by Tk 10 to Tk 173 per liter.

The world's largest oil exporter reported 2023 profit equivalent to $121.25 billion in a stock market filing. It's a reduction of almost 25% compared to 2022, when Russia's invasion of Ukraine drove up oil prices. The Saudi Arabian Oil Group, often referred to simply as Aramco, on Sunday reported a 24.7% decline in profits for 2023 compared to the previous year, when Russia's invasion of Ukraine had driven oil prices well above current levels. Net income reached 454.7 billion Saudi riyals (roughly $121 billion or €111 billion) compared to profits in excess of $160 billion in 2022, the oil giant said in a filing with the Saudi stock market.  "The decrease mainly reflects the impact of lower crude oil prices and lower volumes sold, and weakening refining and chemical margins," Aramco said.    Record 2022 amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine In the aftermath of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in late February of 2022, already rising oil prices were pushed higher still.  Benchmark Brent crude spent much of 2022 at more than $100 per barrel and peaked at almost $130 per barrel in early March. By comparison a barrel cost less than $100 for the entirety of 2023, and the price generally sat at or near this Sunday's price of just under $82 per barrel. Nevertheless, the state-owned company noted 2023's performance was eclipsed only by the previous year's. "In 2023 we achieved our second-highest ever net income," Aramco CEO Amin H. Nasser said in a statement. "Our resilience and agility contributed to healthy cash flows and high levels of profitability, despite a backdrop of economic headwinds." The OPEC group of oil exporting countries tried to stimulate higher prices in 2023 by reducing production levels. First announced last April, the output reduction by Saudi Arabia, Russia and others had only a moderate and fairly fleeting impact. Oil revenue still key to Saudi pivot plans Aramco's record 2022 profits had given Saudi Arabia its first budget surplus in years.  Profits from the kingdom's vast natural reserves, which are cheap to extract as they are located close to the desert surface, are crucial to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's projects seeking to pivot away from oil sales, including major construction projects like his futuristic desert city called Neom.  The record revenues of recent years have also drawn criticism from activists, given concerns about the burning of fossil fuels accelerating climate change. On Thursday this week, Prince Mohammed transferred another 8% of Aramco shares to the country's prominent sovereign wealth fund, known as the Public Investment Fund (PIF).  The Al Saud royal family owns the vast majority of the company, with a small share traded on the Tadawul stock market. By revenue, Aramco is the world's second-largest company after US retail giant Walmart.  

The government has fixed the new price of edible oil, the new rates will be effective from March 1. The price will be reduced by Tk 10 per liter, said a press release of the Bangladesh Vegetable Oil Refiners & Vanaspati Manufacturers Association today (Feb 20). The meeting was held at the at the Commerce Ministry on Tuesday (February 20). State Minister for Commerce Ahasanul Islam Titu briefed reporters after the meeting. Accordingly, the price of bottled edible oil has been reduced by Tk 10 per liter to Tk 163. On the other hand, open soybean oil will be retailed at Tk 159 per litre.  

One Bangladeshi and 22 Indian crew members are on board a British oil tanker MV Marlin Luanda which reported an outbreak of fire in the Gulf of Aden, following an alleged Houthi missile strike. The incident prompted the Indian Navy to rush its warship to join firefighting operations. The fire broke out on the night of January 26 and the ship has 22 Indian and one Bangladeshi crew members onboard, the Indian Navy said today (Jan 27).   "The fire-fighting efforts onboard the distressed Merchant Vessel is being augmented by the NBCD team along with fire fighting equipment, deployed by INS Visakhapatnam to assist the crew onboard the MV. The MV has 22 Indian & 01 Bangladeshi crew onboard," the Indian Navy wrote on X, formerly Twitter.   The firefighting efforts onboard the oil tanker are being augmented by a team of India's National Biological and Chemical Defence along with equipment, the Indian Navy said. While there was no official word on how the fire broke out, the blaze was reportedly caused by a missile fired by Houthi rebels.

Oil reserves, have been discovered at Sylhet-10 well, which can produce 500-600 barrels per day, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid said today. On Sunday (Dce 10), Nasrul Hamid said in a press briefing that In total four layers of reserve fuel have also been identified. Nasrul Hamid told, "The first layer, at a depth of 1,400 metres is where oil was found. Although no gas was found in the first layer, more tests need to be conducted before the full picture can be understood." Zanendra Nath Sarker, chairman of the Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation Petrobangla said, "Oil was found in another layer, 397-1,445 metres deep, which was tested on 8 December with an initial API gravity of 29.7 degrees. Around 35 barrels of oil flow per hour are available at self pressure. After the test is completed, the oil reserves will be known."  The Petrobangla chairman said that "Oil produced at 2,540 and 2,460 metres deep will sustain for about 8-10 years and is worth about Tk8,500 crore as weighted average cost. If produced at the rate of 20 million cubic feet, it will sustain for more than 15 years." After re-evaluations, 200-300 billion cubic feet of gas can be found which will be worth about Tk17,000 crore. "Initially, the oil reserves were about 8-10 million barrels worth Tk7,000 crore." Oil was first discovered in Haripur field back in the late 80s. The authorities back then ran a drilling stamp test to pump out around 500 barrels of the thick oil. Later, the government decided the field was not commercially viable and it was abandoned. The first time Bangladesh had struck commercially feasible oil was back in 2012.  "This is the first time that we have found economically viable oil resources, estimated at about 153 million barrels, in the two gas fields, 280km from the capital," the then chairman of Petrobangla Mohammad Hussain Monsur had told reporters. During the briefing, the state minister for energy said in the second layer, at around 2,460-2475 metre, initial tests revealed reserves of around 20-25mmcfd of gas. At a depth of around 2,540-2,575 metre, around 20-25mmcfd of gas was also discovered during a test on 26 November, he added. The pressure there stands at 3,500 PSI. The final layer, at 3,300 metres, could not be investigated fully due to high pressure of around 6,000 PSI. After all the tests are completed, the full extent of the gas and oil reserves will be known, the state minister said. The reserves could be worth around Tk8,500 crore and may be usable for more than 15 years. Currently, about 2,300mmcfd gas is being produced from 21 gas fields in the country, while about 700mmcfd gas is being imported from abroad to meet the demand of about 4,000mmcfd, leaving a deficit of about 1,000mmcfd. Bangladesh required about 6.7 million tonnes of fuel in fiscal 2021-2022, with the country's fuel consumption rising by up to 8% each year, according to the state-run BPC. To meet the overall demand, around 700,000 lakh tonnes of fuel are extracted from domestic sources. Meanwhile, Eastern Refinery, the country's only oil refiner, has the capacity to purify 1.5 million tonnes of crude oil every year. The well Sylhet-7, the much-discussed well in the history of Bangladesh as this was the single oil producing well of the country, was drilled at Haripur in 1986. After 07 years of more or less uninterrupted production of total 5,60,869 barrels of crude oil, the well (Syl-7) ceased its production on 14 July, 1994 due to gradual decline in well head pressure. In March 2005, the work over was accomplished on the well Syl-7 and was completed as a gas producer with an initial production capacity of 15mmcfd.  

Bangladesh Tank-Lorry Owners’ Association, Bangladesh Fuel Oil Distributors Association, Khulna Divisional Tank-Lorry Workers’ Union and Padma, Meghna and Jamuna Tank-Lorry Workers’ Welfare Association are observing an indefinite strike since Sunday morning. Demands are raising commission on fuel sales to at least 7.5 percent, setting the tank-lorry economic life to 50 years, and issuing a gazette notification mentioning fuel traders as commission agents as per previous pledges. In Khulna, huge number of  private vehicles and motorbikes were seen forming queues at fuel pumps from Saturday night. Claiming their demands as logical, Md Muraduzzaman, a leader of petrol pump owners’ association, said they were forced to start the strike from Sunday morning as their demands were not met by August 31. Earlier on August 23, the Khulna fuel traders threatened to go for an indefinite strike from September 3 if their three-point demand was not met by August 31.

Bottled Soyabean oil price will be sold at tk 174 from today. Earlier on Sunday, new price of oil declared by The Bangladesh Vegetable Oil Refiners and Vanaspati Manufacturers Association. At the same time, Bangladesh Sugar Refiners Association also declared the new sugar price. Now the price of loose sugar dropped to Taka 130 per kg from Taka 135 per kg. and However, the price of a five-litre bottle soybean oil dropped to Taka 850 from Taka 873 as packaged sugar fell to Taka 135 per kg from Taka 140 per kg. Meanwhile, The Rapid Action Battalion conducted a drive in Kaptan Bazar at Dhaka, aimed to curb the escalating egg prices that were causing concern among consumers.

Higher discounts on crude oil offered by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to wean India away from Russian crude may soon see Indian refiners ramping up purchases from the Gulf nation, officials at multiple refiners said. They also pointed to the recent agreement on trade settlement in national currencies signed between India and the UAE as a reason for this. “While discussions are underway, the UAE has offered discounts on crude, which will be more than that of the current level of Russian discounts. "There have been periodic talks on the issue but the pace has intensified in recent months as discounts from Russia have reduced,” an official said. Crude imports into the country touched a record high of $16.8 billion in 2022-23 (FY23), up from $12.3 billion in the previous year. But this made the Emirates only the fourth-largest source of crude for India in FY23. It knocked down one spot from FY22 due to the emergence of Russian Urals grade crude in the Indian market. Last month, Business Standard had reported that the government anticipated that West Asian sellers such as Iraq and the UAE were keenly watching the situation and may raise their level of discounts. Last year, Baghdad had undercut Russia from June, by supplying a range of crudes that on average cost $9 a barrel less than Russian oil. The extremely price-sensitive market, therefore, had shifted heavily in favour of Iraq. Currently, the price of Russian Urals grade crude is trading close to the $60 limit, beyond which sanctions take hold. Since April, the majority of Russian oil sold to India has been on the Dubai benchmark, with an average discount level of $8-10 per barrel. Industry insiders said Moscow won't change terms by a wide margin at a time when it is pressed for cash. But the level of discounts has continuously shrunk in 2023 as China snapped up large volumes of Russian crude. “Discounts on Russian oil are still continuing but the levels have dropped. "Refiners would look at favourable terms wherever they exist. Right now, that is the West Asian countries,” a senior official with a major refiner said. Currency arrangement Recently, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to settle trade in local currency. This enables the use of the rupee and UAE’s dirham for cross-border transactions. Crude oil forms the single-largest component of India’s $84-billion bilateral trade with the UAE. As a result, the government has nudged refiners to expedite more purchases from the country, sources said. The UAE is India’s third-largest trading partner globally, after the United States and China. The country has also become India’s second-largest source of imports after the pandemic. Source: rediff.com

Government has lowered cooking oil prices from Tk 5 to 12 per litre. New rates is being effective from today, July 12.  However, the price of bottled soybean oil is now at Tk 179 per litre from 189, loose soybean oil at Tk 159 from 167 and five-litre soybean oil bottle has decreased by Tk 43 to Tk 873. bottled and loose palm-oil prices per litre have been set at Tk 148 and Tk 128. Ministry of Commerce said that on Tuesday after the edible oil traders’ body announced the revised price in a press release.  The press release was signed by the association’s executive officer Md Nurul Islam Molla. The revised price will be in effect from Wednesday, added in that press release. It also said, traders have taken these decisions after discussing with the government following the recent fall in the price of edible oil in international market.    

The government has reduced the price of edible oil. It will activate in the market within next few days. On Sunday, june 11, Tapan Kanti Ghosh, senior secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, confirmed the matter. He said, "The price of packaged soybean oil has been reduced by 10 taka per litre. So the current price of Soybean oil is 189 taka. Palm oil price has been reduced by 2 taka and the current price  palm oil is 133 taka per litre."