Bangladesh has signed a Tk5,426.26cr deal with a Chinese state-owned oil pipeline builder to install a single-point mooring (SPM) at Sonadia Island in the Bay of Bengal and two 220km-long pipelines to connect the SPM with Eastern Refineries Ltd (ERL) in Chittagong.
An SPM facilitates the transfer of crude oil from mother vessels to offshore tanks and then to onshore tanks. The project’s main objective is to ensure the unloading of imported crude oil in a more efficient and time-saving manner.
With installation of the SPM, Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) will be able to cut the oil-unloading period to nine days from the existing 21 days, from a 20-tonne lighter ship.
Sayed Mohammad Mozammel, director of BPC, and Zhao Yujian, president of China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau, sign an agreement to build a single-point mooring in deep sea and 220km pipeline. State Minister for Power and Energy Nasrul Hamid, Energy and Mineral Resources Division Secretary Nazimuddin Chowdhury, and BPC Chairman Md Mahmud Reza Khan were all present the ceremony at a hotel in Dhaka
PIDChina Petroleum Pipeline Bureau will build the SPM as well as the pipelines that will connect the SPM with ERL.
BPC initiated the SPM project five years ago to handle the transfer of crude oil from Kutubdia Island to Patenga in Chittagong in a bid to tackle oil pilferage and reduce the time required for fuel oil supply.
The deal was signed on Thursday at a hotel in Dhaka. Sayed Mohammad Mozammel, director of BPC, and Zhao Yujian, president of China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations.
The BPC represented the Bangladesh side at the signing ceremony. State Minister for Power and Energy Nasrul Hamid, Energy and Mineral Resources Division Secretary Nazimuddin Chowdhury, and BPC Chairman Md Mahmud Reza Khan were all present.
Currently BPC imports crude and refined petroleum from different Middle Eastern and other countries through Chittagong Port. Large oil tankers unload the crude oil to lighter vessels at sea, which carry it to Eastern Refineries for distillation.
