100,000 tonnes of crude oil to reach Ctg Port on May 5: official

According to officials, an oil ship that has already crossed the Red Sea and is transporting 100,000 tonnes of crude oil from Saudi Arabia is anticipated to arrive at Chattogram Port’s outer anchorage on May 5 night.

“The MT Ninemia is carrying the crude oil and it already crossed the Red Sea. We expect the ship to reach the outer anchorage Chattogram Port on the night of May 5,” state-run Eastern Refinery Plc’s managing director Md Sharif Hasnat told BSS.

He said that in order to reach safe areas in the Arabian Sea on its way to the Bay of Bengal, the ship maneuvered via Yemen’s Houthi-controlled shoreline and avoided the Strait of Hormuz conflict zone.

According to Hasnat, the ship was loaded overnight and left Yanbu port on the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia at six in the morning on April 21.

Eastern Refinery Limited (ERL), which was forced to temporarily suspend operations due to a shortage of crude oil, will restart operations with the arrival of the shipment from Saudi Arabia.

But the ERL chief said another ship-Nordics Pollux- carrying 100,000 tonnes of crude oil remained stuck at the Ras Tanura port in Saudi Arabia’s eastern region due to virtual closure of the Hormuz Strait.

The state-run entity annually refines 1.5 million tonnes of crude fuel which account for the country’s roughly 20 percent of the country’s annual demand for 7.2 million tonnes.

According to representatives of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), they import 92% of the petroleum needed to meet demand, with the remaining 8% coming from local sources and being processed from condensates.

Transportation accounts for 63.41 percent of petroleum use, with agriculture coming in second with 15.41 percent, primarily for irrigation.

11.67 percent of the remaining volume is utilized to generate electricity, 5.96 percent is used for industrial production, and about 1 percent is used for domestic use.

When it comes to petroleum demand, diesel leads the pack, followed by furnace oil, gasoline, octane, kerosene, and jet fuel utilized in the aviation industry.

According to BPC authorities, they sold 68,35,341 tonnes of petroleum in the most recent fiscal year of 2024–2025.