Quoting /u/Cyn_Helen posted in /r/Nepal (https://np.reddit.com/r/Nepal/comments/3q1a5g/china_giving_1k_m_ton_fuel_as_grant_will_it_be/cwbf469)

To put this in perspective, last year Nepal imported: Type |Amount|Units Petrol|287,473|kiloliters Diesel|921,714| kiloliters Kerosene|19,653|kiloliters Aviation Fuel 141,404 kiloliters LPG 258,299 metric tons So altogether Nepal imported about 1,375,963 tons of oil and gas, which comes to a usage of 3770 tons per day. Which means that these 1000 metric tons of Chinese fuel amounts to about 25% of the normal fuel use in Nepal in one day. Of course, it will last a bit longer with rationing, but not very much. The article says it was a "grant" but it doesn't make clear what that means, are they saying it was free? Or did Nepal have to pay? While this is a one-time deal, I was wondering if this is sustainable over the long term. The source of the fuel is the middle east via India, and the nearest port where the fuel could arrive is Kolkota, which is about 500 km from the Nepal border. If Nepal switched to China, the fuel would still come from the middle east since China is also a net importer of fuel, but it would come via a Chinese port. The nearest Chinese port from the Nepal border is at a distance of about 3,500 km overland. So it would add a 3,000 km land journey compared to Kolkota. Plus it would add about 6,000 km to the sea journey, because Chinese ports are farther from the middle east than Indian ports. Currently, Nepal spends 72% of its foreign exchange each year on imported oil and gas. I was wondering how much it would add to Nepal's cost to transport almost a million and a half tons of fuel an extra 3,000 km overland (ignoring the extra sea distance because ships are relatively cheap). I mean, foreign exchange is a very limited commodity and Nepal imports a lot of other things with hard currency as well, so does Nepal even have the means to afford expensive fuel? At the least, it seems it would cause a serious and long lasting depression in the economy.