Crude pumping to ERL kicks off Jan end

CHATTOGRAM, Jan 12: Pumping of crude and refined petroleum products to the Eastern Refinery Limited (ERL) is expected to begin at the end of the current month through double pipeline, said Muhammad Lukman, Managing Director of the Eastern Refinery Limited (ERL).

Test commissioning of the Single Point Mooring (SPM) and installation of double pipeline of the state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) is underway, he said.

With pumping of petroleum products directly to ERL, Bangladesh will enter into the environment friendly transportation of petroleum products from the sea.
For pumping petroleum products from a mother tanker setting up of on-shore storage tanks at Matarbari began on November 30.
A Saudi mother tanker carrying 82,000 tonnes of crude oil of ARAMCO arrived at the outer anchorage on November 9.

The project involving installation of Single Point Mooring (SPM) and 110 km of double pipeline from  Matarbari to the Eastern Refinery Limited was taken to unload imported crude oil and finished products speedily, at low cost by  reducing system loss.

The BPC sources said that the new system will save Tk 800 crore annually.

Bangladesh annually imports nearly 80 million tonnes of crude and refined petroleum.

The ERL refines 1.2 million tonnes of crude annually, said BPC officials.

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) recently approved the revised project proposal (RDPP) for setting up the SPM and installing the double pipeline at an escalated cost of Tk 8,298 crore, with additional expenditure of Tk 1,173.56 crore.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the countrys first Single Point Mooring (SPM) on November 11.