Maheshkhali terminal: BPC completes crude oil transport

Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation has successfully completed transporting crude oil from Maheshkhali Tank terminal to Eastern Refinery.

With this, the commissioning of the second pipeline of "Single Point Mooring (SPM): With Double Pipeline" project has been completed.

Since the commissioning has been completed, crude oil pumping from Maheshkhali stopped at 2:30pm yesterday.

Through the newly installed pipeline under the sea, a total of 40,000 tonnes of crude oil has been transported under the project. 

"The crude oil pumping started from Maheshkhali end on March 9, and it stopped at 2:30pm today [yesterday]," Sharif Hasnat, director of the SPM project, told The Daily Star.

"For the first time, oil has been transported through the pipeline with low pressure. It took about six days to transport the oil due to conducting various tests. With this, commissioning of the second pipeline of SPM has also been successfully completed," he added.

He also said it will take only five days to transport one lakh tonnes of crude oil in future.

The SPM project is about 110km long (two pipelines), said project officials.

Around Tk 7,124 crore has been spent on this project, financed by BPC, the Bangladesh government, and the Exim Bank of China.