DHAKA: Eastern Refinery Ltd (ERL), which supplies around 40% of Bangladesh’s fuel needs, said it plans to more than triple its oil-processing capacity with a 3.5mn tonne-a-year unit to help meet rising domestic demand, Reuters reports from Dhaka. The new unit at Patenga refinery in Chittagong will cost $1.7bn, Nasrul Hamid Khan, Bangladesh’s junior minister for power, energy and mineral resources, said. The expansion will be mainly financed by ERL, according to a senior official of the ministry.
ERL, a subsidiary of state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Corp (BPC), signed a deal on Tuesday with Engineers India Ltd, which will provide management consultant services for the expansion project. The government will decide on the project developer through a tender. ERL, Bangladesh’s sole refiner, currently processes 1.3mn tonnes of crude oil annually.
