Bangladesh breathes heavy as India bans Oxygen export

Bangladesh is one of the largest importers of medical and industrial oxygen from India. But the recent coronavirus surge has left India struggling to cope with shortage of medical oxygen and thus the country has stopped exporting oxygen since April 22.

Abdul Jalil, Benapole land acting port director informed that 97 metric tonnes of oxygen entered Bangladesh through India on April 21 which was the last shipment till now.

Farid Hossain Miah, Director of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), said that they need around 150 tonnes of oxygen every day. Since Bangladesh is witnessing reduced number of Covid patients since the past week, the ban on oxygen export by India has not yet shaken the continuity of medical oxygen supply in hospitals, he said.

But there may arise a shortage of oxygen supply if Covid infections increase in Bangladesh, he added.

According to officials, hospitals in the country consume 150 to 160 tonnes of oxygen per day which was 200 to 220 tons a day a week ago.

Local producers supply about 140-150 tonnes of oxygen to hospitals per day and the remaining 50 to 60 tons were imported from India when infections were high.

The health ministry formed a committee on Saturday to determine the demand for oxygen and alternative sources of importing.

On the other hand, domestic oxygen producers have been instructed to produce medical oxygen only for the time being.

Five companies, including Linde Bangladesh, Spectra Oxygen Ltd and Islam Oxygen Ltd, import oxygen from India through the land port, said sources at the port.

Officials said, around 1,815 tonnes of oxygen were imported in 29 tankers from India through Benapole port between April 1 to 22. And about 30,000 tonnes of oxygen were imported through Benapole in the last one year alone.

Human resource official at Linde Bangladesh, Saiqa Mazed, said that the last time they imported oxygen from India was on April 21 and since then the prime Indian oxygen importer in Bangladesh has not received any shipment.

“We have a capacity of producing around 90 tonnes oxygen per day. We are now giving more priority to producing medical oxygen to meet the local demand,” said Saiqa.

For the last six weeks, there has been a 40 percent increase in daily average consumption of medical oxygen, she said.

Saiqa said, Linde was in contact with the concerned government authorities for uninterrupted supply of electricity and gas needed for seamless production. It takes four to five hours to go back to production once interrupted.

Another local oxygen supplier, Islam Oxygen Company has the capacity to produce about 40 tonnes of oxygen per day. But they are currently being able to produce 30 tonnes due to load shedding.

DGHS’s Director Farid Hossain Miah said they are currently working on framing next course of action in meeting daily oxygen demand in case of emergency.

“If we go to bring oxygen from an alternative source, then the nearest country is Singapore. And bringing oxygen from there will increase both time and cost.