Eastern Refinery resumes operations after 23 days as fuel supply normalises
A Chinese vessel, “Ninemia”, carrying 100,000 tonnes of crude oil from Saudi Arabia anchored at the outer anchorage of Chattogram port on Wednesday.
The country's only fuel oil refinery, Eastern Refinery Limited, resumed full operations this morning (8 May) after remaining shut for 23 days due to a shortage of crude oil.
A Chinese vessel, "Ninemia", carrying 100,000 tonnes of crude oil from Saudi Arabia anchored at the outer anchorage of Chattogram port on Wednesday. Transportation of crude oil to the refinery through lighter vessels started the same night.
Eastern Refinery General Manager (Operations) Mostafizur Rahman told The Business Standard that preparations had already been completed and operations resumed after sufficient crude oil arrived.
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He said supply of refined fuel may begin from tomorrow according to demand.
The vessel left Saudi Arabia's Yanbu port on 21 April and arrived at Chattogram port on 6 May.
After around 16,000 tonnes of crude oil reached the refinery within 24 hours, refining operations resumed fully at 8:20am today. Refinery authorities have set a daily refining target of 4,000 to 4,500 tonnes.
The refinery, which has a monthly refining capacity of 150,000 tonnes, shut down on 15 April after crude shipments did not arrive for nearly two and a half months due to the Us-Israel war on Iran, delays at Saudi ports and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
