French firm Technip has submitted a draft final design of a crude oil refinery to be set up in the country with an annual capacity of 3.0 million tonnes.
They submitted the draft to state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), and would do the detailed engineering plan and cost estimation on the basis of a final front-end engineering and design (FEED).
The French firm is expected to finalise the FEED and send it to the BPC this month, a senior BPC official said.
The BPC's wholly-owned subsidiary, Eastern Refinery Ltd (ERL), will implement the project - its second refinery unit -- which is expected to help save the country around $220 million annually.
The BPC last year assigned Technip to carry out the FEED works of the proposed refinery at a cost of Tk 2.57 billion (US$ 32.10 million). Earlier in November 2016, the two parties signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU).
Indian consulting firm Engineers India Limited (EIL) has been acting as the project management consultant (PMC), said the official.
Separately, BPC has moved to build another crude oil refinery near Payra port in southern Bangladesh with an annual capacity of 7.50 million tonnes to cater to the mounting oil demand.
The BPC has also started working on build a single point mooring (SPM) system, jetty and storage facility for the refinery.
Bangladesh would be implementing the projects under Speedy Supply of Power and Energy (Special Provision) Act 2010, bypassing the tender procedure, the BPC official said.
Currently, Bangladesh imports around 6.0 million tonnes of crude and refined petroleum oil every year to meet the domestic demand.
