A Hong Kong-flagged ship ‘Quichi’ has arrived at the outer anchorage of the Chittagong port with 26,500 tons of octane from Malaysia.
This is the third octane shipment to arrive in April, following two previous shipments of 26,000 tons and 27,000 tons on April 8 and April 17.
Officials estimate that the current octane supply can meet the country's daily demand of 1,200 tons for over two months. The arrival of this ship was delayed by about 15 hours due to adverse weather conditions, reaching the outer anchorage on April 30 instead of the expected time on April 29 at 8 pm.
Local agent Pride Shipping Lines has announced that the oil unloading operation from the ship 'Quichi' will commence on Thursday afternoon. Managing Partner Nazrul Islam stated that adverse weather conditions and rough seas delayed the ship's arrival by about 15 hours.
Currently, five ships are waiting at the outer anchorage, with three that have already berthed undergoing oil unloading since Tuesday. Two more ships joined the operation on Tuesday.
On Thursday morning, the last ship carrying octane from Malaysia arrived. Nazrul Islam explained that the delay in unloading is due to the limited number of Dolphin Jetties at the port, preventing all ships from berthing simultaneously. Additionally, the arrival of several large ships last week necessitated the use of small mother vessels for oil unloading.
Due to inclement weather, the pace of oil unloading has slowed down, potentially delaying the berthing of the ship that arrived on Thursday, April 30, until May 2. On Tuesday, a Hong Kong-flagged vessel named 'Gran Kuva' arrived at Chittagong Port around 3 pm carrying 34,000 tons of diesel from India. Later that day, a Singapore-flagged ship called 'Hafnia Marlin' arrived at the port around 11 pm with 10,000 tons of diesel from China.