ERL cuts refined petroleum product output by 16pc

Country's lone crude oil refinery, the Eastern Refinery Ltd (ERL), has cut refined petroleum products output by around 16 per cent over the past couple of weeks due to electricity supply problem, a top government official said.
State-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) had to cancel a naphtha export tender and issue re-tender for it as the consequence, said a senior BPC official.
The ERL is currently refining 3,400 - 3,500 tonnes of crude in the distillation unit instead of regular 4,000 - 4,200 tonnes due to the problem, said a senior ERL official.
The ERL is unable to pump in required quantity of crude to the distillation unit following a power supply problem, said the official.
A 2.0 megawatt (mw) capacity diesel-fired generator of the ERL tripped in late April, which has slowed down the refining of petroleum products, he added.
This electricity is used for sending crude to the distillation unit through pumping.
Production of almost every refined petroleum product including diesel, furnace oil, petrol, octane, jet fuel, kerosene, naphtha, and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from the country's lone refinery has also been squeezed proportionately due to the power supply problem.
BPC failed to award a regular naphtha tender to best bidder Vitol Asia for mid-May loading of 170,000 barrels and had to issue a retender for end-May loading of naphtha at a deferred date because of refinery problem.
Vitol had offered the most competitive bid of $0.12 per barrel premium to the mean of Platts Singapore naphtha assessments, free on board (FOB) for the naphtha purchase.
BPC had to inform Vitol about its inability to supply 170,000 barrels of naphtha for May 10-12 loading.
It, however, had requested Vitol to take the naphtha supply in a deferred schedule for May 25-27 loading. But Vitol refused to take naphtha at the deferred date.
The failure of awarding naphtha tender to the best bidder is rare for the BPC, a senior official said.
Reduced refining of crude from the ERL would continue until the power supply system is restored by June.
"We have already informed the authority concerned to resolve the problem," he said. If the power supply problem continues for long, it might affect the supply chain and additional petroleum products might have to be imported.