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Fuel-carrying vessels have been arriving continuously at Chattogram Port. From Thursday afternoon (April 23) until Friday morning (April 24), two ships delivered 68,450 tons of diesel. Additionally, another Chinese-flagged vessel, ‘Xing Tong 799,’ is scheduled to arrive today at 4 PM, bringing 34,600 tons of jet fuel from South Korea.
Given a daily demand of 12,500 tons, the diesel that arrived in just one day is sufficient to meet the country’s needs for more than five days.
Yesterday, around 3 PM, the Pakistani-flagged ship MT Quetta docked at the port’s outer anchorage with 33,400 tons of diesel from Taiwan.
Subsequently, at approximately 5 AM today, the Panama-flagged vessel ‘Prive Angel’ arrived with 35,055 tons of diesel from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Furthermore, at 4 PM today, the Chinese-flagged ship ‘Xing Tong 799’ is expected to arrive from South Korea, carrying 34,600 tons of jet fuel.
With a daily requirement of 2,500 tons, this quantity of jet fuel can cover demand for approximately 14 days.
Confirming these details, Nazrul Islam, Managing Partner of Pride Shipping Lines, the local shipping agent for these vessels, informed TBS that lightering operations for the diesel from the ship that arrived yesterday afternoon have already commenced. Lightering from the vessel that arrived this morning will begin later, as priority will be given to the jet fuel-carrying ship due to lower existing stock.
He explained that currently, four ships are awaiting at the outer anchorage. Due to their oversized nature, these vessels cannot be berthed at the port’s Dolphin Jetty. Lightering is being performed at Kutubdia Anchorage using smaller mother vessels. Moreover, with only two jetties available for berthing, it’s not possible to accommodate more mother vessels simultaneously.
However, Nazrul Islam emphasized that efforts are ongoing to unload the fuel as swiftly as possible.
Earlier, from February 28, when the war in the Middle East began, until April 21, a total of 823,170 tons of fuel oil arrived at Chattogram Port on 26 ships over a period of 53 days.