Eastern Refinery; the largest oil refinery in Bangladesh

Eastern Refinery is the largest 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.

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

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.

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

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.