Bangladesh’s Sole State-Owned Refinery Shuts Down Amid Crude Oil Shortage

Bangladesh’s only state-owned oil refinery, Eastern Refinery PLC Limited (ERL), has been shut down due to a shortage of crude oil, officials confirmed.

According to two company officials, the last refining operations at the plant were carried out on Monday. However, the Energy Division has assured that there is sufficient stock of refined petroleum in the country and that supply chains will remain unaffected.

ERL officials said operations had been sustained temporarily by processing around 5,000 tonnes of crude oil accumulated in the pipeline of the Single Point Mooring (SPM) system at Maheshkhali, as well as extracting residual crude from storage tanks.

Typically, the refinery processes about 4,500 tonnes of crude oil per day. Due to the ongoing shortage, daily refining capacity had already been reduced to around 3,500 tonnes since last month. By March 4, usable crude stock had dropped below 2,000 tonnes.

Attempts to contact ERL Managing Director Md. Sharif Hasnat and Chairman of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), Md. Rezanur Rahman, for comment were unsuccessful.

According to BPC data, Bangladesh imports between 6.5 and 6.8 million tonnes of fuel annually, with diesel and crude oil accounting for the largest share. Around 1.5 million tonnes of crude oil are imported from Middle Eastern countries and refined at ERL.

The disruption comes amid a halt in crude oil imports for nearly two months due to tensions stemming from the conflict between Iran and the United States. The next shipment of crude oil is expected to arrive in the first week of May, leaving ERL operations suspended until then.