The main plant of Eastern Refinery Limited (ERL), the country's sole state-owned oil refinery, resumed production at 8 am on Friday after a 26-day temporary closure caused by depleted crude oil reserves.

ERL Managing Director Engineer Sharif Hasnat confirmed the reopening following the receipt of a fresh shipment of crude oil.

The facility had been forced to shut down its distillation unit on April 12 as the previous shipment, which arrived on February 18, was exhausted amid shipping disruptions linked to the escalation of the Middle East conflict.

Operations were restored after the vessel MT Ninemia successfully delivered 100,000 tonnes of crude oil to the Kutubdia Channel, notably bypassing the disrupted Strait of Hormuz route.

Due to the large size of the MT Ninemia, the crude oil is being transferred to the Patenga refinery via smaller tankers through lightering operations.

Commodore Mahmudul Malek confirmed the safe arrival of the vessel, noting that transporting the oil to the refinery began immediately following the completion of customs and survey formalities.

In an effort to secure further reserves, another tanker named MT Fossil has been dispatched to collect an additional 100,000 tonnes of crude oil from Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, with an expected arrival date of May 9 and loading scheduled for May 10.

Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) currently has 100,000 tonnes of crude oil aboard the vessel Nordics Pollux, which remains stranded at Ras Tanura port in eastern Saudi Arabia due to ongoing shipping disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.

The state-owned Eastern Refinery plays a critical role in the national energy sector, processing approximately 1.5 million tonnes of crude oil annually and meeting about 20 percent of the country’s total fuel demand of 7.2 million tonnes.

Bangladesh remains heavily reliant on imported fuel to meet domestic needs, supplemented only by a small portion of local gas condensate processing.

Diesel continues to be the nation's most demanded fuel, followed by furnace oil, petrol, octane, kerosene and aviation jet fuel.

Records indicate that in the 2024-2025 fiscal year, BPC sold a total of 6,835,341 tonnes of fuel to various sectors.