Bangladesh refinery to get upgrade

Bangladesh will receive a loan of US$190 million from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) to upgrade refining capacity of the country’s only refinery, Eastern Refinery Limited (ERL), in Chittagong. Abdulla-al-Shahin, a spokesman of Bangladesh’s energy and mineral resources division, said that after the renovation, ERL’s crude refining capacity would rise to 3.0 million tons a year, from 1.3 million tons. State-run Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), the only importer and distributor of fuel oil, will also be able to reduce its import cost after the renovation, Shahin said. (October 11, 2006)