Cabinet picks Indonesian firm as maintenance contractor   

The government will appoint Indonesian company PT Pertamina Trans Kontinental as the operations and maintenance contractor for the Single Point Mooring (SMP) to unload oil from large ships through pipeline to onshore storage facilities.

The Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase (CCGP) has taken up the decision on Wednesday at a meeting chaired by the Finance Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury. 

The decision comes after the SMP, built at an inflated cost of TK 8,298 crore following repeated extensions of deadline, has been sitting idle for more than two years. The interim government could not take a decision on the appointment of the contractor.

According to the proposal, the government will pay nearly Tk 1,950 crore to the Indonesian company for the job, according to a decision. By this time, loan repayments for the SPM project �" the first integrated offshore-onshore oil storage and transport system in Bangladesh �" have begun.

The Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) has repaid Tk 3,077 crore, and the next instalment of Tk 690 crore is due by December. The 18-month guarantee period with the contractor for fixing technical faults in the SPM has expired.

The delay alone has cost an estimated Tk 1,000 crore to Tk 1,200 crore in lost savings. 
BPC began building pipeline facility in Maheshkhali of Cox’s Bazar in August 2018 to replace the slow and costly practice of unloading oil from larger tankers onto lighterage vessels.

The construction was completed in March 2024 after four deadline extensions, pushing the cost from about Tk 5,000 crore to Tk 8,298 crore. The SPM lets large tankers moor at a floating buoy offshore and pump crude oil and diesel straight into subsea pipelines. 

The operation of the SPM will cut unloading and transport time to about 48 hours from present 11-day process of unloading a large tanker to just hours. 

The Cabinet Committee has also approved procurement of two additional cargoes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar Energy Trading LLC under a long-term government-to-government agreement.

The additional LNG cargoes are scheduled for delivery on 6 November, and 22 November 2026, according to the proposal placed before the committee.

The LNG will be procured at a price of JKM minus $0.02 per MMBtu, which is different from the price specified in the existing long-term contract.

Qatar Energy Trading LLC was recommended as the supplier for the two additional cargoes.

The proposal was placed by the Energy and Mineral Resources Division.

The purchase is part of the government's arrangements to ensure LNG supplies for meeting the country's energy requirements.