Eastern Refinery Resumes Operations after 26-day Halt
Collected Photo
The main plant of the state-owned Eastern Refinery Limited (ERL) has resumed operations after remaining shut for 26 days due to the depletion of crude oil reserves.
Bangladesh’s only government-run petroleum refinery returned to production after receiving fresh crude oil supply.
Eastern Refinery PLC Managing Director Engineer Sharif Hasnat confirmed that production restarted at 8 a.m. on Friday.
“Our plant resumed operations at 8 a.m. However, the processing takes a few hours. After that, production will begin. We will gradually move toward full-capacity output,” he said.
The tanker MT Ninemia, carrying 100,000 tons of crude oil bypassing the Strait of Hormuz, arrived at Kutubdia channel on Wednesday afternoon. This marks the first crude shipment to reach Bangladesh since the outbreak of the war.
The 249.95-meter-long vessel could not dock at the Chattogram Port’s Dolphin Jetty via the Karnaphuli River due to its size. As per procedure, the oil is being transferred through smaller tanker vessels via lightering operations.
The last crude oil shipment arrived on February 18, before the conflict began in the Middle East.
Following the depletion of reserves caused by the war, the crude oil distillation unit of Eastern Refinery was temporarily shut down on April 12.
Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (BSC) Managing Director Commodore Mahmudul Malek, whose organization is responsible for transporting crude oil imported by Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), said the MT Ninemia arrived safely in the country. He added that lightering operations began after completion of customs and survey procedures.
He further said that another tanker, MT Fossil, has been dispatched from Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates carrying 100,000 tons of crude oil. The vessel is scheduled to dock at the port on May 9, load oil on May 10, and then depart again for Bangladesh.
Another vessel, Nordics Pollux, carrying 100,000 tons of crude oil for BPC, remains stuck at Ras Tanura port in eastern Saudi Arabia due to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Eastern Refinery processes 1.5 million tons of crude oil annually, covering nearly 20 percent of the country’s total yearly demand of 7.2 million tons.
Diesel accounts for the highest share of fuel demand, followed by furnace oil, petrol, octane, kerosene, and jet fuel used in aviation.
In the 2024-2025 fiscal year, BPC sold 6,835,341 tons of fuel oil.
