KATHMANDU, Nov 4: A week after signing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to supply petroleum products to Nepal, Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has invited officials of PetroChina Company Limited (PetroChina) to Nepal to hold discussion on trading of petroleum products and sign a commercial agreement.
Writing a letter to PetroChina on Tuesday, the state-owned oil monopolist has requested PetroChina to send its official to Nepal within November to sign Business to Business (B2B) agreement for supplying petroleum products to Nepal.
Nepal and China had signed the MoU in Beijing on October 28. The agreement signed by NOC Managing Director Gopal Khadka and PetroChina Vice President Zhang Tong provides a framework for supply of petroleum products from China to Nepal.
"We want to import petroleum products from China as soon as possible," Naindra Prasad Upadhaya, secretary of Ministry of Commerce and Supplies (MoCS), told
|Republica, adding, "The letter to PetroChina will be sent on Wednesday after needful coordination with Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA)."
Upadhaya, however, said NOC has already sent the request letter to PetroChina via email.
"We, however, are not sure whether PetroChina send its officials to Nepal or invite us to China to sign commercial agreement," he added.
The commercial agreement between the two companies is expected to fix the quantity, quality, rates and supply date of Chinese petroleum products to Nepal. Nepal has already asked PetroChina to supply one-third of its total demand for petroleum products.
China has already told Nepal that it would supply petroleum products as per the international price rates. The northern neighbor has already announced 1,000 tons of petrol in grant to address fuel shortage in Kathmandu.
The commercial agreement with PetroChina will diversify Nepal's fuel trade and substantially reduces NOC's dependence with Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). The government decided to choose an alternative source to import petroleum products after IOC significantly reduced fuel supply to Nepal, citing security reasons. Nepal looked to the northern neighbor for the essential supply after failing to make any headway in diplomatic efforts to resume the supply from India.
"The letter formally requests PetroChina to sit for commercial discussion so that we can sign a BtoB deal," Mukunda Ghimire, officiating director of NOC, said, adding NOC will finalize the date to sign commercial agreement after needful discussion between the two companies.
Published on: My Republica (November 4,2015)
