In a first, diesel to be pumped thru deep sea pipeline

After a long wait, diesel transportation is going to start through the first-ever undersea fuel pipeline.

Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) has made a plan to send 60 thousand metric tonnes of diesel to Chattogram's Eastern Refinery by pumping it from Maheshkhali's storage tank terminal on February 29.

The pumping will start at 9:00am and it will take 17 hours to reach the Chattogram refinery, said the Project Director of the Single Point Mooring (SPM) project Sharif Hasnat

He said, in early December, 60 thousand metric tons of imported diesel was unloaded from large ships at the storage tank terminal at Maheshkhali.

After various tests, the plan to pump the diesel to the Eastern Refinery has been finalised, he added.

Under the SPM project, two parallel pipelines have been installed -- one for crude oil and the other for diesel. There is a floating mooring point in the deep sea and a storage tank terminal in Maheshkhali.

The 110km pipeline to transport crude oil and diesel from a deep-sea mooring, 16km off the Maheshkhali coast, to Eastern Refinery Ltd in Chattogram's Patenga was commissioned on June 25 last year. The cost of the project was Tk 7 thousand 124 crores.

Eastern Refinery officials said the diesel and crude oil were transported from floating mooring in the sea to the storage tank terminal at Maheshkhali in December.

Officials also said that it will take about 17 hours to pump 60 thousand metric tons of diesel from Maheshkhali's storage tank terminal to Chattogram's Eastern Refinery.

For the first time diesel is being transported through this pipeline, they said, adding that they would take extra precautions.

The pipeline can transport 900 cubic metres of oil per hour.

Contacted, Managing Director of Eastern Refinery Limited Mohammad Lokman told The Daily Star that the SPM project will be successful if diesel transportation starts as per the plans.

After that, the crude oil will be transported through another pipeline in the first week of next month, he said.

Once the project is fully operational, the transportation of fuel through lighter vessels from outer anchorage in the Bay of Bengal to the Eastern Refinery will be reduced. This will save about Tk 800 crore every year.