Crude oil crisis: Bangladesh’s only refinery faces imminent shutdown after April 10

Eastern Refinery Limited (ERL), the country’s sole state-owned oil refinery, is on the verge of a temporary shutdown as crude oil imports have remained suspended for the last one and a half months.According to reliable sources within the Fuel Division and Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), current stocks—including "deadstock" (oil settled at the bottom of storage tanks) and oil remaining in the pipelines—can only sustain production until April 10.The refinery usually processes an average of 4,500 tons of crude oil daily. However, due to the deepening crisis, production has been slashed to 3,500 tons per day to stretch existing reserves.Data as of April 4 indicates that usable crude oil stocks have dropped below 2,000 tons. Beyond this, approximately 10,000 tons of deadstock and 5,000 tons of pipeline oil are being salvaged.Harvesting oil from the pipelines requires specialized pumping into tankers. Combined, these reserves offer only about five days of operational capacity.The ...

• 05 Apr 2026