Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) has undertaken the operation of petroleum liquid fuel like gas. The company has started work on forming a separate company for maintenance of petroleum pipelines. A 'Petroleum Transmission Company' is being formed on the model of Gas Transmission Company Limited (GTCL), a gas transmission pipeline construction and maintenance company under Petrobangla. BPC has approved 'Petroleum Transmission Company (PTC-PLC)' as a private limited company. Manpower recruitment process has started and managing director will be appointed after registration of joint stock company registrar.
According to BPC sources, this project has been undertaken to save cost and time in clearing imported liquid fuel. The cost of the project titled 'Installation of Single Point Mooring (SPM) with Double Pipeline' has been estimated at Tk 7 thousand 124 crores 62 lakhs. The project is likely to be completed by mid-2023. Again, an 8-inch diameter pipeline is being built from Pitalganj in Narayanganj to Kurmitola Aviation Depot in Dhaka to supply aircraft fuel. Tk 249 crores are being spent on the 16 km long pipeline. The work of the project is almost at the final stage.
Eastern Refinery Managing Director Engineer Md. Lokman said that the commissioning will begin at various operational points of the SPM project within the next few months. BPC has already decided to form PTC-PLC for operation and maintenance of these pipelines. Single Point Mooring (SPM), Dhaka-Chittagong Pipeline and India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline projects are nearing completion. Eastern Refinery has started a recruitment process for a full workforce of 119 people for 50 posts. PTC-PLC will start its official activities with the appointment of the managing director after receiving the registration of the Registrar. Now the manpower recruitment process has started through Eastern Refinery.
BPC said, about two and a half kilometers pipeline is being built to transport fuel oil from Chattogram to the capital Dhaka. The cost of this project is 3 thousand 171 crore 85 lakh taka. Similarly, BPC is constructing a 131 km pipeline to bring imported oil from India's Numaligarh refinery. The work on the project named India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline has progressed more than 90 percent. All pipelines could be operational by 2023.
Meanwhile, BPC has taken steps to recruit manpower in preparation for setting up a petroleum transmission company. Eastern Refinery has started recruitment of 119 people for 50 posts. Eastern Refinery has issued a recruitment notification in the newspaper.
BPC Director (Operation and Planning) Khalid Ahmed, convener of the committee, said that in the coming years, fuel oil transportation activities will be started through pipelines. Meanwhile, four pipeline projects including SPM are nearing completion. India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline, Chattogram-Dhaka Pipeline, Pitalganj-Kurmitola Pipeline are in progress. After the construction of these pipelines, new maintenance companies have been formed. The new company is very similar to Petrobangla's GTCL. The company is named Petroleum Transmission Company (PLC). Now applied for registration in Joint Stock Company. After registration, another subsidiary organization of BPC will be created.
BPC is worried that they will be complicated in maintenance if fuel oil transportation starts through pipelines. The state-owned company has no previous experience in transporting fuel oil through pipelines by land, despite carrying out unloading and supply operations from ships. There is also no policy on fuel oil supply pipeline maintenance. Currently under construction pipeline projects are being implemented by Eastern Refinery Limited and Padma Oil Company Limited. New manpower will be needed when the pipelines come into operation. Considering these, BPC took steps to form a separate company for the maintenance and operation of fuel oil supply pipelines in the future. For this a high level committee was constituted by convening the BPC Director (Operations & Planning).
The committee includes BPC Secretary, Member Secretary and General Manager (Planning & Development), General Manager (Accounts), Managing Director of Padma and Jamuna Oil, Managing Director of Petrobangla subsidiary GTCL, Company Secretary of Eastern Lubricants Blenders Limited (ELBL) and BPC Legal Advisor as members. BPC has completed all preparations for the formation of Petroleum Pipeline Transmission Company in view of the recommendations of the committee. Approval has been received from the Ministry for formation of the new company.
