Chinese-built SPM system delivers oil successfully at Bangladesh's Chattogram port

Aerial photo taken on Nov. 30, 2023 shows the dual-channel single-point mooring system project at Chattogram port in Moheshkhali, Bangladesh. (Bangladeshi dual-channel single-point mooring system project department/Handout via Xinhua)

The project has opened up an energy transportation artery for Bangladesh, providing a modern unloading system for crude oil and related products, experts said.

CHATTOGRAM, Bangladesh, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- At Chattogram port, Bangladesh's first sea-land integrated super-large oil storage and transportation system has been put into operation, with a 100,000-ton oil tanker unloading oil through the Chinese-built single-point mooring (SPM) system.

The SPM system project was completed by builders from the China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau (CPP). According to A. B. M. Azad, chairman of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation, the successful mooring of large oil tankers and offshore oil operation on Wednesday are important milestones in the Bangladesh-China energy cooperation as well as major achievements in bilateral energy cooperation under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Bangladesh has relied on imports for almost all of its oil and petroleum products, with tankers arriving in Chattogram from abroad. However, the limited water depth of the port has denied access by the 100,000-ton oil tanker, resulting in unloading and conveying oil to the port by small oil tankers, which is inefficient and costly. It also risks polluting the environment.

In early 2019, the construction of the dual-channel SPM system project started with support from preferential loans provided by the Chinese government, financed by the Export-Import Bank of China, and undertaken by China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Co., Ltd.

Project manager Sun Bijun told Xinhua that the Chattogram SPM system allows large oil tankers to moor offshore at a deep-water point from which pipelines extend for loading and unloading operations.

According to Sun, the project has opened up an energy transportation artery for Bangladesh, shortening oil unloading and transportation time for 100,000-ton oil tankers from 11 days to about 48 hours, and saving the South Asian country 128 million U.S. dollars in crude oil transportation every year.

Md Sharif Hasnat, project manager of the Bangladeshi side, said the project provides a modern unloading system for crude oil and related products shipped to Bangladesh, which is of great significance to the country and its oil and energy industries.