Crude oil vessel arrives in country, ERL set to resume production

A ship carrying crude oil has finally arrived in Bangladesh after a long hiatus. This is the first crude oil vessel to reach the country since the start of the US-Iran conflict.

The vessel, named MT Ninemiya, anchored at the Kutubdia point of Chattogram port on Wednesday, May 6, carrying approximately 100,000 tonnes of crude oil.

Port sources said two lighter tankers have been kept ready in advance to unload oil from the large vessel. After the oil is transferred to these tankers, it will be brought to the port's dolphin jetty and sent via pipeline to the Eastern Refinery Limited (ERL). This crude oil is the main raw material for the country's sole state-owned refinery, producing around 13 types of fuel, including diesel, petrol and octane.

No crude oil vessel had arrived in the country for about two and a half months prior to this. The last vessel docked at Chattogram port on February 18. Facing a raw material shortage, ERL had been operating at a limited capacity for the last month and a half using 'dead stock' oil stored in the pipeline. During this period, production was reduced to two-thirds, and the variety of fuel types was cut from 13 to just two, leaving the refinery on the brink of shutdown.

The MT Ninemiya, which set sail from Yanbu port in Saudi Arabia, has brought new hope for ERL. If all goes smoothly, the refinery is expected to resume full-scale production from May 7.

Efforts are also underway to bring another tanker, MT Fossil, carrying an additional 100,000 tonnes of crude oil. The vessel is scheduled to load oil from Fujairah port in the UAE on May 10. If everything progresses as planned, it could also reach the country this month, raising the possibility of a total of 200,000 tonnes of crude oil arriving in May.

Officials said a certain amount of oil always remains in the pipeline from the deep sea via the Single Point Mooring (SPM) project's storage tanks in Maheshkhali to ERL, known as 'dead stock'. This oil is typically not used except in emergencies. However, this dead stock was used to keep production running during the recent crisis.

Bangladesh Shipping Corporation Managing Director Commodore M Mahmudul Malik expressed hope that fuel production would return to normal course with the arrival of fresh crude oil.

Meanwhile, another tanker, Nordic Polax, remains stranded due to security risks in the Strait of Hormuz. Another vessel, the Omera Galaxy, has cancelled its journey to Bangladesh for the same reasons, which had temporarily created a fuel crisis in the country.