Published :
Updated :
For all latest news, follow The Financial Express Google News channel.
The trial run of the country's maiden single-point mooring (SPM) system in the Bay of Bengal starts today (Sunday), said sources.
Following the trial, state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) will carry out the first filling of diesel into the SPM, they added.
In addition to its regular crude-oil imports, the BPC has imported around 82,000 tonnes of Arabian Light Crude oil in June to facilitate the piloting ahead of the formal commissioning of the mooring facility, BPC Director for Operations and Planning Khalid Ahmed told the FE.
The SPM serves the purpose of transporting petroleum products from offshore vessels to onshore storage facilities. Following a successful trial operation, it will transition into commercial production.
Bangladesh's lone refinery, Eastern Refinery Ltd (ERL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of BPC, typically imports around 1.50 million tonnes of crude oil annually for domestic refining purposes.
Ahmed says that once the SPM becomes operational, Bangladesh will annually save around Tk 8.0 billion (US$75.50 million) solely by reducing transportation costs of petroleum products from outer anchorage to onshore fuel tankers.
The BPC is implementing the key project at a cost of around Tk 65.68 billion, with China's assistance.
Out of the total project cost, the government contributed around Tk 12.19 billion, BPC around Tk 6.85 billion, and the remaining Tk 46.63 billion came as project aid.
As part of the project, a 220-kilometre pipeline has been installed, with most of it laid in the waters of the Bay of Bengal. Construction works for the fuel-pumping stations and six fuel-storage tanks have also been completed.
The storage tanks have a combined capacity of approximately 240,000 tonnes of petroleum products, with 150,000 tonnes designated for crude oil and 90,000 tonnes for gasoil.
Currently, imported petroleum cannot be directly offloaded into Chattogram storage tanks. Large tankers anchor in the deep-sea area, and smaller vessels are responsible for unloading the petroleum products and transporting them to onshore storage facilities.
To ferry petroleum products from larger mother vessels at the outer anchorage to the onshore tanks, the BPC pays approximately US$5.50 per tonne to lighters or small vessels, mainly owned by the state-owned Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (BSC).
The process of offloading oil from tankers can take up to seven days, often resulting in fines for time overruns incurred by the BPC.
The SPM will enable offloading of 120,000 tonnes of crude oil within 48 hours and 70,000 tonnes of gasoil (diesel) within 28 hours.
Bangladesh annually imports around 7.0 million tonnes of combined crude and refined oils to meet the growing demand driven by a thriving economy.