The construction of single point mooring (SPM), a much-needed system to carry petroleum products from vessels far offshore to onshore storage tanks through pipelines, is nearing completion and expected to be operational in the next several months.
State-run Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) is planning to install the buoy at the deep offshore within the next several months as the Netherlands-based Blue Water has already sent it after completing its construction recently, BPC chairman ABM Azad told the FE.
"We have a plan to initiate the test run after installing the buoy and go for its commercial operation subsequently," he said.
In the meantime, the BPC has decided to import an additional 100,000 tonnes of crude oil in 2022 to facilitate operation of the under-construction SPM.
The government is expected to save around Tk 8.0 billion every year only by reducing the transportation cost of the petroleum products from outer anchorage to onshore fuel tankers once the SPM is completed at a cost of around Tk 65.68 billion.
Of the total project cost, the government is providing around Tk 12.19 billion, BPC around Tk 6.85 billion and the remaining around Tk 46.63 billion is project aid.
As part of the project works, around 135 kilometre (km) offshore pipeline and 58 km onshore pipeline are already laid down. The construction work of the fuel pumping stations and six fuel storage tanks are already completed.
The tanks have a cumulative capacity to store around 240,000 tonnes of petroleum products - 150,000 cubic metre crude oil and 90,000 tonnes diesel.
The China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Co. Ltd (CPP) is building the country's maiden SPM system.
The project titled, 'Installation of Single Point Mooring (SPM) with Double Pipeline' is being implemented with a Chinese concessional loan of around US$554 million.
Of the total loan amount, China is providing $467.84 million as preferential buyers' credit and the remaining $82.5 million as soft loan.
Exim Bank of China is providing the money to be repaid in 20 years at an interest rate of 2.0 per cent per annum with a five years grace period.
Currently, the BPC cannot offload imported petroleum products at its Chattogram fuel storage tanks directly.
Large tankers anchor in the deep sea and smaller vessels unload the petroleum products and bring the fuel to onshore storage facilities.
The BPC pays around US$5.50 per tonne to the lighterage 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 of outer anchorage.
It takes up to seven days to offload oil from tankers and the BPC very often has to pay fines for the extra period.
After installation of 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's capacity to offload petroleum products will be around 9.0 million tonnes annually.
The SPM will save BPC around $8.0 per tonne by eliminating the vessel transfers, said a senior BPC official.
Once the SPM is built, the BPC will be able to unload petroleum products from a 100,000 deadweight tonnage tanker within 48 hours, which now takes 11 days, said the BPC chairman.
No lighterage vessel will be required to carry fuel from the mother vessel, which is to be moored at the outer anchorage, he said.
Bangladesh annually imports around 7.0 million tonnes of crude and refined oil combined, of which around 1.5 million tonnes are crude oil and the remaining are refined petroleum products.
