The government has made two senior officials of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) officers on special duty (OSD), holding them responsible for what officials described as “poor management” of the country’s fuel supply during the ongoing Middle East crisis which upended the global energy sector in edge.
The decision was taken by the Energy and Mineral Resources Division yesterday (5 March) following a high-level meeting at the ministry.
The officials who were made OSD are AKM Azadur Rahman, director (operations & planning), and Muhammad Ashraf Hossain, director (marketing), both of whom were directly involved in overseeing fuel operations and market management.
Officials familiar with the decision said policymakers felt that the situation could have been handled better if the two officials had taken more proactive steps to manage fuel procurement and reserves amid growing uncertainty following Iran’s move to close the vital shipping route of the Strait of Hormuz.
“The ministry believes better anticipation and management could have prevented the current level of strain on fuel stocks,” said a senior official involved in the meeting seeking anonymous.
Following the order, both officials have been attached to the Ministry of Public Administration as officers on special duty.
In the official order, they were instructed to be released from BPC and report to the ministry by 8 March.
Failure to do so will be treated as “stand released,” according to the directive.
To know about the latest shake-up at Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation, TBS reached out to the minister and state minister of the Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry but could not connect with them as they did not answer their phones.
TBS also contacted the chairman of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation to learn the rationale behind the decision, but he was not immediately available for comment.
Seeking anonymity, several officials at Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation told TBS that fuel management does not depend solely on these two officials but involves the entire management structure, where the Energy and Mineral Resources Division itself plays a critical role in the decision-making process.
“Singling out individuals for what is essentially a collective failure in fuel management could make the situation even worse,” one official said.
Sources within BPC and the Energy Division also said the ministry was displeased that information about real-time fuel reserves had been shared with journalists in recent days.
Officials feared that public disclosure of declining reserves would trigger panic among consumers and lead to unnecessary stockpiling.
Over the past week, concerns about Bangladesh’s fuel security have intensified after Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz disrupted energy shipments from the Middle East – a region that supplies a large portion of the country’s fuel imports.
The situation has exposed the fragile balance between supply and demand in Bangladesh’s energy system.
According to BPC data on Friday (6 March), the country currently has around 129,717 tonnes of diesel in reserve, enough to meet demand for roughly 14 days.
The stock of octane has also fallen to about 23,055 tonnes, sufficient for around 25 days of consumption.
However, the reserve of furnace oil – widely used in power plants – remains relatively comfortable. Current stocks stand at around 77,532 tonnes, which can meet demand for approximately 89 days.
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