Stormy weather has forced the authorities to defer the long-awaited single-point mooring trial run, an offshore buoy designed to pump and siphon imported crude oil to a storage facility– at Moheshkhali in Cox’s Bazar.
Rear Admiral Mohammad Sohail, Chairman of the Chittagong Port Authority, visited the mooring site on Sunday to observe the trial run. However, he had to cut the visit short and return midway due to rough sea conditions.
At present, the country imports more than 6 million tonnes of fuel by sea. But infrastructural limitations at the Chittagong Port and navigability issues along the Karnaphuli channel prevent mother vessels from offloading fuel directly.
As a result, these tankers are anchored in the deep sea and unload crude oil through small lighterage vessels. It takes about 11 days to unload a tanker with a capacity of 100,000 DWT.
As the method is time-consuming, risky, and expensive, the SMP project was initiated in 2015.
The Eastern Refinery Limited (ERL) is implementing the project under a G2G contract between Bangladesh and China. Within the framework of this project, two pipelines, each spanning a length of 110 kilometres, have been laid. One pipeline is designated for the discharge of crude fuel oil, while the other is dedicated to refined diesel.
