Dhaka (Platts)--1Feb2013/513 am EST/1013 GMT
Bangladesh is set to borrow $11 billion from the Islamic Development Bank over 2013-2016 to fund its oil imports, a senior finance ministry official told Platts Friday. "We have already held talks with top IDB officials, where the latter have given assurance to provide the loan," said the official with the ministry's economics relations division. The loan will be provided under IDB's Member Country Partnership Strategy program, which was started in 2010 to help member countries deal with financial woes over 3-5 year periods, the official said. It will include the $2 billion loan that state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation has already obtained from the IDB's lending arm -- International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation -- for the current Islamic year. Article continues below...Sign up to Oilgram News today. Oilgram News brings fast-breaking global petroleum and gas news to your desktop every day. Our extensive global network of correspondents report on supply and demand trends, corporate news, government actions, exploration, technology, and much more.
Bangladesh is set to borrow $11 billion from the Islamic Development Bank over 2013-2016 to fund its oil imports, a senior finance ministry official told Platts Friday. "We have already held talks with top IDB officials, where the latter have given assurance to provide the loan," said the official with the ministry's economics relations division. The loan will be provided under IDB's Member Country Partnership Strategy program, which was started in 2010 to help member countries deal with financial woes over 3-5 year periods, the official said. It will include the $2 billion loan that state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation has already obtained from the IDB's lending arm -- International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation -- for the current Islamic year.
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The ITFC provides loans based on the Islamic calendar, and the current Hijri 1434 year began on November 15, 2012. The ITFC has long been the main source of funding for BPC's oil imports. Like current loan terms, the Bangladesh government will be guarantor of BPC's loans from the IDB. BPC has estimated that it would have to import about 5.9 million mt of crude oil and refined products in the fiscal year ending June 2013, up 11.3% from imports of 5.3 million mt the year before. The company's import bill in the current fiscal year is estimated at about $5.5 billion, up 14.6% from the previous year's estimated $4.8 billion. Bangladesh's oil imports have increased substantially since 2010 as the country has installed around three dozen new oil-fired power plants to ease the domestic electricity crisis. The country's oil imports might increase further in the coming years as several more oil-fired power plants are set to come online.--M Azizur Rahman, newsdesk@platts.com--Edited by Deepa Vijiyasingam, deepa_vijiyasingam@platts.com
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