BPC\\\'s SPM project cost rise baffles IMED

The German consulting firm -- ILF Consulting Engineers -- has carried out a fresh survey over building the country's maiden single-point mooring (SPM) system and suggested changes in the project.
However, the changes as suggested by the consultant will push up the cost of the project yet again.
The project-implementation cost of the SPM will go up nearly fourfold to US$ 600 million from the cost estimated initially by Pakistani consultant in 2010, a senior official of state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) told the FE Saturday.
The cost of the SPM system, planned for carrying petroleum products from vessels far offshore to an onshore terminal, will increase as the German consultant suggested building four separate pipelines instead of three into the SPM system.
The latest changes suggested by the consultant have come as a surprise to the Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) under the Ministry of Planning, a senior official at the ministry told the FE.
The IMED had earlier opposed the BPC's new plan costing worth around US$ 500 million to build the SPM with three pipelines, said the BPC official.
Smelling a rat in the BPC's plan the IMED sought observation from an international consultant a couple of months ago.
The BPC had subsequently approached the German consultant, which had been engaged with the BPC for over the past five years to implement the SPM project.
The ILF earlier had carried out a detailed study in 2011 on the proposed SPM and estimated the project cost at $327 million, almost trebling the initial projection of around $136 million.
The ILF's previous study was on building a single pipeline and installing the SPM near Kutubdia Island in the Bay of Bengal from where oil will be carried through the pipeline to the shore through pumping.
In its latest evaluation the ILF says BPC should build two 36-inch-diameter pipelines instead of one running 18 kilometres (11 miles) from the SPM at the outer anchorage in the Bay to Moheshkhali Island carrying both crude and refined petroleum products.
The SPM is an infrastructure to be built and moored in the Bay from where petroleum products will be unloaded from mother vessels and carried through pipeline into storage tanks.
Officials said initially the BPC had planned to build a single pipeline along with the SPM system at an estimated cost of around US$136 million five years ago.
The estimated cost for building the SPM increased further to around US$500 million when Chinese petroleum firm China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau (CPPB), a subsidiary of China's state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), showed interest in building the much-needed SPM along with three pipelines.
The BPC has already received an 'unsolicited' technical offer from the Chinese firm and is now reviewing it.
Chairman of BPC AM Badrudduja said building the three pipelines along with the SPM would help quicken fuel import at lower costs. "Carrying crude and refined oils through separate pipelines would be cost-effective compared to carrying both through a single pipeline," the chairman added.
mazizur.rahman@outlook.com