Eastern Refinery Limited

Eastern Refinery Limited (ERL) A subsidiary of the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) and the only petroleum refinery plant in Bangladesh. It is a public limited company incorporated under the companies act 1913. The project was initiated in 1963 by a group of Pakistani entrepreneurs. The refinery complex was installed on the bank of the karnafuli river at a cost of Tk 151.7 million. It went into operation in 1968. ERL owns and operates a crude distillation unit (34,000 BPSD), catalytic reforming unit (70,000 TPY), asphaltic Bitumen plant (vacuum distillation unit plus Bitument blowing unit, 70,000 TPY of Bitumen), visbreaking unit (522,000 TPY of RCO processing) and mild hydrocracking unit (57,000 TPY). This refinery has the capacity of refining 34,000 barrels of crude oil per day (i.e., 1.5 million m tons per year).

Basically, it is a fuel refinery, producing different kinds of petroleum products along with some special non-fuel products used in other industries. 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 and 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.

Eastern Refinery produces 17 petroleum products such as RG (Refinery Gas), LPG (liquefied petroleum gas), SBP (Special Boiling Point Solvent), MS (Motor Spirit), Naphtha, SKO (Superior Kerosene Oil), MTT (Mineral Turpentine), JP-1, JBO (Jute Batching Oil), HSD (High Speed Diesel), LSDO (Low Sulphur Diesel Oil), LDO (Light Diesel Oil), HSFO (High Sulphur Fuel Oil), LSFO (Low Sulphur Furnace Oil) and Bitumen. Some of these, such as SBP, JBO, MTT and Bitumen are non-fuel products. Some of the ER products are produced only on demand. [Rafiqul Islam and Sanzida Murshed] [Islam, Rafiqul  Professor of Applied Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Dhaka University]