New measures coming for tank lorries

Prevent theft and adulteration

Zarif Mahmud : According to Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), there are 2,800 registered tank lorries for transporting fuel oil across the country. There are also 100 tankers. But there is no digital lock on these tank lorries or tankers. There is also no tracking system. As a result, incidents like theft occur during the transportation of fuel oil, but no one does anything even if these lorries transport adulterated oil.
Sources in the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources say that recently efforts are being made to bring these tank lorries and tankers under control. For this, digital locks will be installed on each tank and lorry, so that no one can open the tank lorry from any place and steal oil during transportation. Or this tank lorry may not be contaminated. When such a lock is opened, the signal will automatically reach the owner. If there is also a tracking system installed then the owner can see where the tank lorry is located.
Fuel oil is transferred from depot to depot by large ships or rail oil tankers. But beyond this, the oil is transferred from the depot to the filling station and sold to the customer. In recent times, it has been found that the petrol pumps of the country have been raided and unscrupulous traders are also selling adulterated oil in addition to giving less weight. The Energy Department is seriously considering the issue of selling this adulterated oil.
The use of gasfield byproduct condensate (a colorless or pale-yellow liquid hydrocarbon) mixed with gasoline and octane is an old one. But because Petrobangla and BPC were strict, petrol pump owners refrained from giving this adulteration. However, recently, the government is thinking of bringing the oil tankers under surveillance due to adulteration in the fuel oil.
In a recent meeting of the Energy Department, there was a discussion about adding digital lock and tracking system to tank lorries. In the meeting, Energy Secretary Nurul Amin immediately ordered the installation of digital locks with tracking system on tank lorries.
Energy Secretary Nurul Amin said, in the first phase, this system should be added to tank lorries of private companies. Tank lorries of other government institutions should also be brought under control.
The government has recently carried out GPS mapping of the country’s energy selling establishments. This process has been implemented to regulate fuel oil and CNG refueling stations. Now this process will go one step further by digitizing energy transport, said the concerned.