Four months after a failed attempt, the government is all set to retry commissioning the country's maiden Single-Point Mooring (SPM) system by October next to unload fuel oil.
All necessary equipment has already been imported to ensure its smooth commissioning, sources said.
The system is to facilitate pumping petroleum products from vessels far offshore into the onshore-storage tanks.
Its commissioning had a botched debut as the undersea hose-pipe and mooring rope were ruptured during maiden pumping of fuel from mother tankers deep offshore in late June.
Subsequently, state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) had to abandon discharging the crude oil through the SPM.
The BPC later urged state-run Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (BSC) to carry the crude through feeder vessels from the mother vessel on high seas to onshore fuel-storage tanks.
Around 5,000 tonnes of crude oil was spilled over the Bay during the opening setback of the SPM, a senior official of the BPC said.
The BPC is implementing the key project with the assistance of China at an approximate cost of Tk 65.68 billion - the government contributed around Tk 12.19 billion while BPC Tk 6.85 billion and the remaining Tk 46.63 billion came as project loan.
Under the project, a 220-kilometre pipeline has been installed, most of it set up in the waters of the Bay of Bengal. Construction works for the fuel-pumping stations and six fuel-storage tanks have also been completed.
The storage tanks have a combined capacity of around 240,000 tonnes, including 150,000 tonnes designated for crude oil and 90,000 tonnes for gasoil.
Unloading of petroleum products through SPM meant for slashing both time and cost of transportation in oil import, said the project director.
After commissioning the SPM with crude oil pumping, the BPC will proceed with the first filling of diesel into the SPM," SPM project director Sharif Hasnat had earlier told the FE.
Officials say once the SPM is in full-fledged operation, it will take three days to unload the crude oil instead of the usual 11-13 days to unload the same volume of crude during the pre-SPM era.
In addition to its regular crude-oil imports, the BPC imported around 82,000 tonnes of Arabian Light Crude oil in June to facilitate the piloting before the formal commissioning of the SMP, BPC chairman ABM Azad said.
Eastern Refinery Ltd (ERL), Bangladesh's lone refinery and a wholly-owned subsidiary of BPC, usually imports around 1.50 million tonnes of crude oil annually.
According to the BPC chairman, once the SPM system becomes fully operational, Bangladesh is expected to annually save around Tk 8.0 billion (US$75.50 million) solely by reducing transportation costs of petroleum from outer anchorage to onshore fuel tankers.
Currently, BPC cannot offload imported petroleum products to storage tanks directly from mother vessels. Large tankers anchor in deep-sea areas and smaller vessels unload the petroleum products and bring the fuels to onshore storage facilities.
The BPC pays around US$5.50 per tonne to feeder or small vessels owned mainly by the state-owned Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (BSC) to ferry petroleum products to BPC's onshore tanks from larger mother vessels at outer anchorage.
It takes up to seven days to offload oil from tankers and the BPC very often has to pay fines for time overrun.
Through the SPM it will be possible to offload 120,000 tonnes of crude oil within 48 hours and 70,000 tonnes of diesel within 28 hours.
"The SPM will save BPC around $8.0 per tonne by eliminating the vessel transfers," says a senior BPC official.
The SPM's capacity to offload petroleum products will be around 9.0 million tonnes per annum.
Officials of the BPC will be able to unload petroleum from a 100,000- deadweight-tonnage tanker within 48 hours, which now takes 11 days.
"No feeder vessel will be required to carry fuel from mother vessel, which is to be moored at the outer anchorage, after successful implementation of the project," the BPC chairman said.
Bangladesh annually imports around 7.0 million tonnes of crude and refined oils combined, of which around 1.5 million tonnes are crude and the remainder refined.
Azizjst@yahoo.com
