News Desk :
A technical report submitted to Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) said that crude oil from Russia cannot be refined in the government-owned Eastern Refinery Limited (ERL).
A sample of 50 litres of crude oil recently arrived from Russia was recently tested at ERL’s own laboratory.
The test report sent to BPC by the ERL technical committee on Tuesday was received by BPC General Manager (Commercial) Qudrat-e-Ilahi on behalf of the BPC Chairman.
Meanwhile, in the opinion section of the 20-page report, ERL’s technical committee members noted that it is not possible to refine Russian crude oil in the current structure of ERL.
Confirming the news, ERL Managing Director Mohammad Lokman said the current machinery used at the refinery is not suitable for refining Russian crude oil.
“The refinery was built to refine Marban and Arabian oil, which are light crude oil. Russian crude oil is heavier than those. So it cannot be refined here,” he told The Business Standard.
According to ERL sources, Russian crude oil arrived at ERL laboratory in Chattogram on 1 September for testing.
A five-member committee headed by ERL General Manager (Operation and Planning) Raihan Ahmed was formed on the same day to supervise the examination.
Earlier, on August, samples of crude oil arrived in Bangladesh from Russia and sent to ERL laboratory on September 1. After testing the oil sample, the technical team verified its possibility.
ERL general manager Raihan Ahmed was the head of the technical committee while its manager Samiul Islam was the member secretary.
About the report, ERL managing director Md Lokman told a daily newspaper that they submitted the report to BPC in the morning. BPC general manager Kudrat-e-Elahi accepted the report on behalf of the chairman, he added.
