The Single Point Mooring (SPM) project, built at a cost of about Rs 8 thousand crore in Maheshkhali, Cox’s Bazar, has been in a state of turmoil for a long time. Due to the lack of modern system of redemption and transport of oil directly from large ships to the pipeline, the country’s energy reserves and supply capacity are not being fully utilized.
Although the project was completed in 2024, it has not been able to be commercially launched as the operator has not yet been appointed. As a result, this strategically important infrastructure is not used.
Under the project implemented under the supervision of the Eastern Refinery under the supervision of the Eastern Refinery under the supervision of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), a floating buoy, about 220km pipeline and six huge storage tanks have been constructed in the Bay of Bengal. In total, the capacity of about two lakh tonnes of oil is being built, but the tanks are currently empty.
According to the project related information, the capacity of each of the three tanks for crude oil is about 60 thousand kilolitres and the capacity of each of the three tanks for diesel is about 36 thousand kilolitres. If this infrastructure had been launched, it would have been possible to store crude oil and a week’s diesel in the country.
Currently, the oil brought from large ships is transferred to small ships through the Karnaphuli channel and taken to the Eastern Refinery, which is time-consuming and expensive. According to the report, the same work would have been completed in about forty-eight hours instead of eleven days.
According to experts, the project would have been fully operational, in addition to saving a huge amount of time and money a year, it would be possible to reduce the waste and environmental risks of transportation.
However, the project is mainly due to the complexity of the recruitment process of the operator. Earlier, the decision to operate without a tender under special law, but later the new open tender process had to be started as the provision was cancelled, which is not yet over.
Energy officials said the tender assessment is underway and efforts are being made to launch the project through the appointment of operators quickly. Besides, a separate company has been formed to manage it in the future, but there are plans to run the contracting system for the time being.
Energy experts say that if the infrastructure had been in place during the ongoing global energy uncertainty, it would have been a big advantage for the country. However, the project of huge expenditure is still virtually ineffective due to delays and decision-making delays.