Eastern Refinery PLC, the country’s only state-owned fuel oil refinery, has resumed operations after remaining shut down for nearly a month due to a fuel crisis. The refinery’s units started operating gradually from Friday morning and will move toward full production in phases.
The vessel MT Ninemia, carrying 100,000 tons of crude oil while avoiding the Strait of Hormuz route, arrived at the Kutubdia channel on Wednesday afternoon. This is the first crude oil shipment to reach Bangladesh since the outbreak of the Iran-Israel-U.S. conflict.
According to Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) sources, the imported crude oil was transferred from the mother vessel anchored at Kutubdia offshore to smaller vessels and then transported to the refinery. As a result, the refinery units began restarting from Friday morning.
The last shipment of crude oil had arrived on February 18. Refinery operations had not been running properly for nearly two months. In March, refining capacity was reduced from 4,500 metric tons to 3,500 metric tons. After crude oil stocks were exhausted, the refinery was shut down on April 14.