Bangladesh to enter new era in oil import with single point mooring

Country’s system of importing fuel oil will enter a new dimension within this year when Single Point Mooring (SPM) will be used to offload fuel oil from mother vessels, that will save at least Tk 8 billion (Tk 800 crore) per annum, reports news agency UNB.

This SPM will make the country’s energy management system more economical, sustainable and environment friendly, said project officials.

“The SPM project will be commissioned by this year as 95 per cent of its works is already complete. Separate test runs of the project have already been done,” project officer Monjed Ali Shanto told reporters on Thursday.

While briefing reporters at the site of the SPM project, he said that it will take only 48 hours to transfer the imported petroleum from the mother vessel to storage tanks whereas currently it takes 11 to 12 days through lightering.

No lighterage would be required to carry fuel from mother vessel, which is now moored at the outer quay, after implementation of the project, he said.

The SPM was built on over 90 acres of land under a G2G project of Bangladesh and China at a cost of Tk 83.41 billion (Tk 8341 crore) at Maheshkhali Upazila in Cox’s Bazar.

“Once the SPM goes into operation, around Tk 8 billion (Tk 800 crore) will be saved annually by cutting the carrying cost of petroleum products from outer anchorage to fuel tanks,” Monjed said.

Officials said that there are three tanks with storage capacity of 180,000 kilolitre crude oil and three tanks with 108,000 kilolitre furnished oil.

A 15-kilometre long pipeline has already been installed from land up to deep sea to directly unload imported petroleum oil to the SPM.

The SPM has the capacity of unloading 9 million metric ton every year.

A 120-kilometre pipeline was also built from the SPM project to Eastern Refinery Limited (EFL) to treat the crude oil.

The SPM has the storage capacity of 45,000 metric tons of crude oil.

As part of the project work, approximately 135 kilometre (km) offshore pipeline and 58-km onshore pipeline have already been installed.

During a visit it was observed that six storage tanks have already been completed.

Of the six, three tanks will be able to store 60,000 kilolitre crude oil each and the rest will be able to store 36,000 kilolitre diesel each.

The Netherlands-based Blue Water completed the construction of SPM ‘Boya’ which is awaiting shipment to the project site.

The China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Co Ltd is currently building the country’s first SPM system.

The BPC currently pays $5.50 per tonne to lighterage or small vessels, owned mainly by the Bangladesh Shipping Corporation, to ferry petroleum to its onshore tanks from larger mother vessels.

The SPM will save the cost of the BPC.

Bangladesh annually imports around 6.0-million tonnes of crude and refined oil of which 1.3 million tonnes are crude oil and remaining are refined petroleum products.

According to the officials, a 36-inch-wide pipeline from the mooring point will carry the crude oil to the tank at Kalamarchara in Matarbari.

Later, the oil will be taken to the Eastern Refinery in Patenga, Chattogram, 220 kilometres away, through an 18-inch wide pipe.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to inaugurate the SPM project next August.

The 110km pipeline was built between a deep-sea mooring point and the Eastern Refinery Ltd in Chattogram’s Patenga.