diff --git a/src/main/java/au/csiro/variantspark/utils/FileUtils.java b/src/main/java/au/csiro/variantspark/utils/FileUtils.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..1288bcad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/java/au/csiro/variantspark/utils/FileUtils.java
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+package au.csiro.variantspark.utils;
+
+import java.io.*;
+import java.util.zip.GZIPInputStream;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import htsjdk.samtools.util.BlockCompressedInputStream; 
+
+public class FileUtils {
+	
+	/**
+	 * 
+	 * @param file: an input file
+	 * @return true if input file is BGZIP by check the first two byte of input file 
+	 */	
+	public static boolean isBGZFile(String filePath) {
+		/**
+		 * .vcf.bgz is type of GZP file, work well with BlockCompressedInputStream
+		 * .vcf.gz is also GZP file but get java.lang.OutOfMemoryError at java.io.InputStreamReader.read(InputStreamReader.java:184)
+		 * .vcf.bz2 is not GZP file and get java.lang.OutOfMemoryError at java.io.InputStreamReader.read(InputStreamReader.java:184)
+		 * .vcf is not GZP file and get htsjdk.samtools.SAMFormatException: at header from java.io.BufferedReader.readLine(BufferedReader.java:389)
+		*/
+	    try (BufferedInputStream bufferedInputStream = new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(filePath))) {
+	        boolean isValid = BlockCompressedInputStream.isValidFile(bufferedInputStream);
+	        return isValid;
+	    } catch (IOException e) {
+	        //handle exception for non proper bgzip file
+	        return false;
+	    }
+	}
+}
diff --git a/src/main/scala/au/csiro/variantspark/cli/args/SparkArgs.scala b/src/main/scala/au/csiro/variantspark/cli/args/SparkArgs.scala
index 3d9f6641..1eac4ecc 100644
--- a/src/main/scala/au/csiro/variantspark/cli/args/SparkArgs.scala
+++ b/src/main/scala/au/csiro/variantspark/cli/args/SparkArgs.scala
@@ -2,7 +2,11 @@ package au.csiro.variantspark.cli.args
 
 import org.kohsuke.args4j.Option
 import au.csiro.pbdava.ssparkle.spark.SparkApp
+import au.csiro.variantspark.utils.FileUtils
 import org.apache.spark.rdd.RDD
+import htsjdk.samtools.util.BlockCompressedInputStream
+import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Path
+import java.io.File
 
 trait SparkArgs extends SparkApp {
 
@@ -10,7 +14,20 @@ trait SparkArgs extends SparkApp {
     aliases = Array("--spark-par"))
   val sparkPar: Int = 0
 
-  def textFile(inputFile: String): RDD[String] =
-    sc.textFile(inputFile, if (sparkPar > 0) sparkPar else sc.defaultParallelism)
-
+  def textFile(inputFile: String): RDD[String] = {
+    val isBGZ = FileUtils.isBGZFile(inputFile)
+    println(inputFile + " is loading to spark RDD, isBGZFile: " + isBGZ)
+    if (isBGZ) {
+      // BGZIP file is compressed as blocks, requires specialized libraries htsjdk
+      val path = new Path(inputFile)
+      val fs = path.getFileSystem(sc.hadoopConfiguration)
+      val bgzInputStream = new BlockCompressedInputStream(fs.open(path))
+      // each blocks can be decompressed independently and to be read in parallel
+      sc.parallelize(Stream.continually(bgzInputStream.readLine()).takeWhile(_ != null).toList)
+    } else {
+      // The standard GZIP libraries can handle files compressed as a whole
+      // load .vcf, .vcf.gz or .vcf.bz2 to RDD
+      sc.textFile(inputFile, if (sparkPar > 0) sparkPar else sc.defaultParallelism)
+    }
+  }
 }