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Eastern Refinery Limited

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Type
  
Oil refinery

Completed
  
1963

Elevation
  
12 m (39 ft)

Opened
  
1963

Eastern Refinery Limited httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Location
  
North Patenga, Chittagong, Bangladesh

Owner
  
Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation

Eastern Refinery Limited or ERL is the sole country-owned oil refinery in Bangladesh. Eastern Refinery Limited (locally known as ERL), a subsidiary of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation, plays a vital role in supplying around 40% of country’s current petroleum products demand and thus maintains stability in Petroleum, Oil and Lubricants (POL) Products market of the country. ERL sometimes becomes the only fall back system available, to avoid products crisis in the face of disruption of products’ import.

Contents

ERL as a profitable company in the Public Sector contributes substantially to the national exchequer in the form of dividend, taxes, VAT etc.

History

Eastern Refinery was incorporated under Companies’ Act 1913(amended in 1994) as a Public Limited Company in 1963 with 35% EPIDC’s( East Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation) shares, 30% shares held by Burmah Oil Company (BOC) and the rest 35% by private entrepreneurs. From November, 1985, Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) became the 100% share holder of the company.

Refining facilities

Refinery went on-stream with three Processing Units:

  1. Crude Distillation Unit
  2. Catalytic Reforming Unit
  3. Hydrodesulphurization Unit

New Process units added to original configuration:

  1. Asphaltic Bitumen Plant(Commissioned in Dec. 1980)
  2. Long Residue Visbreaker Unit (Commissioned in Dec.1994)
  3. Mild Hydrocracker Unit (Hydrodesulphurization Unit revamped to MHC unit, commissioned in Dec.1994);
  4. MHC unit Converted to NGC (Natural Gas Condensate) unit, Commissioned in Nov. 2007 by ERL Engineers

Treatment units

  1. LPG Merox Unit
  2. Gasoline Merox Unit
  3. Kerosene Merox Unit

Ancillary units

  1. Drum Manufacturing
  2. Drum filling Unit
  3. Hydrogen Plant

Storage

  • Crude Tank (7 Nos.) 2,85,000 m3/ 2,42,250 MT
  • LPG storage 2,200 m3/ 1,210 MT
  • Other Product tank (Including Bitumen) 2,80,000m3

    • Activities

    Under a Processing Agreement with BPC, ERL processes crude oil imported by BPC and delivers the finished petroleum products to the other subsidiaries of BPC for marketing and distribution. ERL processes Arabian Light Crude (ALC) and Murban Crude, imported respectively from KSA and Abu Dhabi and produces 15 petroleum products. ERL also processes natural gas condensate to the tune of 100,000 MT/Yr as crude mix. ERL's operational and other activities are as follows :

  • Receives crude oil imported by BPC in ERL's own storage tanks.
  • Produces petroleum products by processing crude oil and transfer these to other subsidiaries of BPc through pipe lines.
  • Receives imported motor gasoline and diesel in ERL's storage tanks and after necessary blending, transfers these as MS & HSD to marketing companies.
  • Operates Asphaltic Bitumen Plant and delivers the produced Bitumen to marketing companies.
  • Procures equipment, spares, chemical etc. in order to maintain continuous and smooth operation of the refinery.
  • Prepares and executes development projects essential for improvement of refinery operations.

    • Products

    Eastern Refinery is basically a fuel refinery. Currently it produces 16 petroleum oil products

    Fuel products

    1. Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)
    2. Motor Gasoline (Regular)
    3. Motor Gasoline (Premium)
    4. Naphtha
    5. Kerosene
    6. Jet Propulsion (JP-1)
    7. High Speed Diesel (HSD)
    8. Low Sulfur Diesel Oil (LSDO)
    9. Light Diesel Oil (LDO)
    10. High Sulfur Furnace Oil (HSFO)

    Non-fuel products

    1. Bitumen
  • 80/100 grade
  • 60/70 grade
  • 10/20 grade
    1. Special Boiling Point Solvent (SBPS)
    2. Mineral Turpentine (MTT)
    3. Jute Batching Oil (JBO)

    Testing facilities

    Eastern Refinery has a well equipped testing and quality control lab. Besides strict quality control of its finished products, it provides outsider with the various petroleum and oil products testing. Testings are done by methods set by ASTM, UOP & IP.

    References

    Eastern Refinery Limited Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


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