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French Technip has shown interest to build the proposed crude oil refinery as the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor.
It has already proposed state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) to be the EPC contractor of the plant, which will have the capacity of 3.0 million tonnes per year (mtpa).
"We've received a proposal from the Technip about its willingness to be the EPC contractor," BPC chairman Md Shamsur Rahman told the FE.
The proposal requires to be scrutinised before taking a final decision on building the US$1.15 billion (Tk 89.49 billion) refinery in Chattogram, he said.
The French firm had earlier carried out the front-end engineering and design (FEED) for the proposed refinery at a cost of Tk 2.57 billion (US$ 32.10 million).
It submitted the final design of the refinery project, which has also been reviewed and accepted by the BPC after having consultations with the PMC.
Sources said Chinese Sinopec has been considering joining with Technip to jointly build the refinery.
Sinopec has already completed preliminary negotiations with the Technip to build a consortium for the construction of the proposed refinery, a company insider said.
He, however, said that the Technip would be the leader in the consortium.
Once implemented, the new refinery could help the country save $220 million every year, trebling the country's crude oil refining capacity to 4.5 Mtpa from existing 1.5 million tonne per year.
The BPC and the government would provide necessary funding to implement the project.
Currently Bangladesh imports around 7.50 million tonnes of crude and refined petroleum products a year to meet the local demand.
BPC purchased land for the refinery for Tk 2.30 billion from the Ministry of Industries.
Officials said the refinery could enable the country to process any kind of crude oil, thus putting Bangladesh on the path to becoming a refined petroleum products exporting country.
Nepal has already shown interest to import refined petroleum products from Bangladesh and has agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to kick-start the plan.
The surplus finished petroleum products can be exported to Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Myanmar and the north eastern parts of India as well, said officials.
The officials said although the project was planned in 2015 and an MoU between BPC and Technip was signed on November 11, 2015, it did not get pace due to non-assurance of funding.
The BPC later decided to build it with its own fund having support from the government.
To expedite the project work, the BPC on April 19, 2016 assigned Indian consulting firm Engineers India Limited (EIL) as the project management consultant (PMC) to implement the project.
The BPC would have to pay Tk around 1.61 billion to the Indian firm against the PMC fee, which includes US$ 16.54 million plus Tk 82.28 million inclusive of local taxes, within three years.
The BPC on January 18, 2017 assigned Technip to carry out the design work for the proposed refinery.
A consortium of three French companies led by Technip had installed the first unit of the ERL, which is also the country's sole refinery, having the crude oil refinery capacity of 1.5 Mtpa in the port city.
The first unit started commercial operation in 1968 with an economic life of 30 years.
The first unit is, however, still in operation having a de-rated capacity of around 1.4 Mtpa.