Undersea pipeline: Diesel to start flowing to ERL from Feb 29

Diesel transportation from Moheshkhali's storage tank terminal through the pipeline laid under the sea will finally start on February 29.

From February 29, the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) will begin to pump the 60,000 metric tons of diesel imported recently to the pipeline Chattogram's Eastern Refinery, said Sharif Hasnat, the project director of the Tk 7,124 crore Single Point Mooring (SPM) project.

For now, it will take about 17 hours to pump 60,000 metric tons of diesel through the pipeline. However, the pipeline can pump 900 cubic metres per hour.

From next month, crude oil will be transported through the other pipeline under the project in the first week of next month, said Mohammad Lokman, managing director of Eastern Refinery.

This would mark the end of the SPM project.

The BPC, the government and the Chinese Exim Bank are funding the project that is expected to save the country Tk 800 crore a year in fuel transport costs.

Diesel and crude oil would be transported from floating moorings in the sea to the storage tank terminal at Moheshkhali through two 16 km long pipelines of 36 inches width. From the storage tank, two other pipelines of 94 km in length and 18-inch width will transport the fuel oil to the Eastern Refinery in Chattogram.