The market for lubricants has expanded in the last 10 years following a rise in the number of vehicles and power plants in service along with industry.
However, traders are selling the products at arbitrary prices. Besides, there are allegations on the sale of low quality lubricants at high prices in the market.
Experts say since the lubricant market in Bangladesh is growing faster than ever before, it is important to control the price and quality of this oil. State-owned marketing companies need to increase surveillance to control prices.
In order to control the quality, it is important for the regulatory body to set the policy as well as to set up a high quality laboratory.
A lubricant is a substance that helps to reduce friction between surfaces in mutual contact, which ultimately reduces the heat generated when the surfaces move. It may also have the function of transmitting forces, transporting foreign particles, or heating or cooling the surfaces. The property of reducing friction is known as lubricity.
Md. Anisur Rahman, Senior Secretary of the Energy Division complained in a recent meeting that Visco-5000 Mobil was sold at Tk 4,100 at the model filling station of Meghna Petroleum. The same Mobil has to be bought elsewhere at Tk 4,800. Why is the price difference at taka 700 for the same lubricant?
Mir Saifullah Al Khaled, Managing Director of state-owned Meghna Petroleum Limited replied to the secretary that he has talked to the dealers about this. Action will be taken. The managing director said that if any dealer does so, his supply of lubricant will be stopped.
These marketing companies have people who care about whether the right product is being sold at the right price. It is their responsibility to visit the petrol pumps. The question arose in the meeting, are they performing their duties at all?
Md Abu Bakar Siddique, chairman of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), told the meeting that he had recently visited Sylhet and inspected two petrol pumps of Padma Oil Company Limited and Jamuna Oil Company Limited. After checking the inspection books of the two pumps, no official of the two state-owned oil distribution companies came to inspect them. In other words, the oil distribution companies are not keeping track of what the pumps are doing.
It was decided at that meeting that regular inspections would be required from now on. The meeting also decided to prepare a list of how many days a class officer will visit.
The BPC chairman said he had not seen any inspection report since joining the BPC.
BPC alone imports oil across the country and sells it through state-owned Padma, Meghna, and Jamuna marketing companies.
According to BPC, if officials regularly inspect the pumps, everyone will be alert. There are many other companies selling lubricants. Each of them has different grades and prices. Some are industrial, some are for cars. People do not understand everything. Some pump owners are selling lower grade lubricants at higher prices.
Dr. Ijaz Hossain, Professor of Chemical Engineering Department of BUET said that lubricating oil is very important. If it is not good, the engine may break down. So you need to have a good laboratory for quality control. But there is no official lab, only BUET checks the quality of certain products. However, a few private companies have advanced labs.
An official said there were two lubricant processing factories in 1997. At present there are 15 plants in Bangladesh and 3 more are being prepared. Due to lack of monitoring and non-verification of quality, a group is importing and selling it at a lower price with low quality. Due to the sale of lubricants at different prices in the market, no one is thinking about the issue of quality. Many companies have closed down because they could not survive in the market.
Currently the demand for lubricant is around 1 lakh 70 thousand tons in the country and the market size is around taka 5,000 crore.
The demand for the products will continue to rise in line with the increasing population as it is an essential part of maintaining or operating any kind of machinery, according to market insiders.
The demand for lubricants will continue to rise for the next 15 years at least, with rental power plants and the industrial sector together accounting for about 40 percent of total consumption.
With the number of power plants operating in the country having jumped to 149 in the last decade, electricity production has increased five times, according to data from the Bangladesh Power Development Board.