Bangladesh finally unloaded crude oil through the single-point mooring (SPM) system in the Bay of Bengal on Sunday following a failed attempt five months back.
"Around 82,000 tonnes of crude oil from offshore mother vessel to onshore storage facilities at Moheshkhali were unloaded on Sunday morning," said Eastern Refinery Ltd (ERL) managing director Md Lokman.
The China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Co Ltd (CPPEC) supervised crude delivery as part of its job to ensure the commissioning of the SPM project.
Now, the crude is stored in three tanks at Moheshkhali island, some 16 kilometres off the SPM, having the total capacity to store around 125,000 tonnes, according to Mr Lokman.
This crude would be carried to ERL tanks, some 94 km away from Moheshkhali, for refining later this month, he told the FE.
Some 30,000 tonnes of diesel would also be unloaded to Moheshkhali storage tanks through the SPM from Tuesday (December 05), said the ERL top brass.
The Petroleum Transmission Company Ltd, a newly incorporated subsidiary of the state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), will supervise operations of the SPM after commissioning.
He said the unloading of crude oil, imported from Saudi Aramco, through the SPM was initiated on Thursday after hiring a tug boat from China.
The CPPEC imported necessary pipe and mooring hawser for replacing the damaged ones that faulted the July commissioning of the SPM.
The replacement of the damaged hose pipe and mooring hawser was completed in late November, said Mr Lokman.
Following suspension of the test run in early July, the crude oil carried by the mother tanker was lightered to ERL tanks by lighter tankers owned by the Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (BSC).
In addition to regular crude imports, sources said, the BPC imported around 82,000 tonnes of Arabian Light Crude oil in June to pilot the commissioning of the mooring facility.
Bangladesh's lone refinery ERL, also a wholly-owned subsidiary of the BPC, typically imports around 1.50-million tonnes of crude oil annually for domestic refining purposes.
Once the SPM becomes fully operational, Bangladesh will annually save around Tk 8.0 billion ($75.50 million) solely by reducing transport costs of petro-products from outer anchorage to onshore fuel tankers.
The BPC is implementing the key project at an estimated Tk 65.68 billion, with China's assistance.
Of the total project cost, the government contributed around Tk 12.19 billion and the BPC Tk 6.85 billion. The remaining Tk 46.63 billion came as project aid.
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.
Work on the construction of the fuel-pumping stations and six storage tanks have also been completed.
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.
To ferry petro-products from larger vessels at outer anchorage to onshore tanks, the BPC paid approximately $5.50 per tonne to lighters or small vessels, mainly owned by the BSC.
The process of offloading oil from tankers could take up to seven days, often resulting in fines for time overruns incurred by the BPC.
The SPM will enable 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