State-run Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) has moved to select a contractor for the operations and maintenance (O&M) of the country's maiden single-point mooring (SPM) around one year after its commissioning, said sources.
Chinese firm China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Co Ltd (CPPEC) completed the construction of the SPM with a double-pipeline project and handed over the infrastructure to the BPC in August 2024, a senior BPC official told The Financial Express Wednesday.
Instead of taking necessary steps for selecting an O&M contractor, the BPC kept the Tk 80 billion infrastructure idle for around a year, it has been alleged.
Despite having the SPM facility, the BPC is still using lighter vessels to carry fuel from mother vessels to tanks onshore, wasting billions of taka, they said.
The SPM system is used for piping petroleum from vessels far offshore into onshore storage tanks, thus slashing both time and cost of oil import.
As per the tender documents, the BPC would be receiving proposals from interested contractors until June 19, 2025.
If the tender process turns successful, awarding the O&M job of the SPM would be possible by November 2025, around one and a half years after its commissioning with a double-pipeline project.
Sources said CPPEC built the country's maiden SPM system after being selected as a contractor unsolicitedly under the Quick Enhancement of Electricity and Energy Supply (Special Provision) Act 2010.
The project cost escalated by 60 per cent to Tk 80 billion from the initial target of Tk 50 billion, they said.
The Chinese firm handed over the SPM project to the BPC in August after its successful testing and commissioning in April last year.
The contract with the Chinese firm over building the SPM expired in June 2024.
The installation of the SPM with double pipeline project was implemented with Chinese concessional loan of around $554 million.
Of the total loan, China provided around $467.84 million as preferential buyers' credit and the remaining $82.5 million as soft loan.
The Exim Bank of China provided the money, to be repaid within 20 years at an interest rate of 2.0 per cent per annum with five years' grace period.
Despite its commissioning in April, the SPM remained unutilised due to the absence of an O&M contractor.
Once it is fully executed, the BPC will be able to unload petroleum products from a 100,000-deadweight tonnage tanker within 48 hours, which now takes 11 days.
No lighter vessels would be required to carry fuel from mother vessels, which are now moored at the outer quay, after the project's implementation.
The BPC, however, is still paying $5.50 per tonne to lighterage or small vessels, owned mainly by the Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (BSC) to ferry petroleum to its onshore tanks from larger mother vessels.
The SPM is set to save the cost of the BPC in unloading fuel significantly, once it initiates operations commercially.
Project Director Md Sharif Hasnat did not respond to repeated calls to clarify the delay in assigning an O&M contractor for the SPM.
Neither was Mr Hasnat, also the managing director of Eastern Refinery Ltd (ERL), available to respond to the existing arrangements of carrying petroleum products from mother vessels.
Once the SPM becomes fully operational, Bangladesh will annually save around Tk 8.0 billion ($75.50 million) solely by reducing the transport costs of petro products from outer anchorage to onshore fuel tankers.
As part of the project, a 220-kilometre pipeline has been installed, with most of it laid in the waters of the Bay of Bengal.
Six storage tanks have also been constructed.
The tanks have a combined capacity of 240,000 tonnes of petroleum products, with 150,000 tonnes designated for crude oil and 90,000 tonnes for gasoil.
Previously, imported petroleum could not be directly offloaded into Chattogram storage tanks.
Large tankers anchored in the deep-sea area, and smaller vessels were responsible for unloading the petroleum products and transporting them to onshore storage facilities.
The SPM will enable the offloading of 120,000 tonnes of crude oil within 48 hours and 70,000 tonnes of gasoil (diesel) within 28 hours.
Bangladesh annually imports around 7.0 million tonnes of combined crude and refined oils to meet the growing demand driven by a thriving economy.
Azizjst@yahoo.com
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