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Oil pilferage from pipeline and ships of Petrobangla |
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October 6, 2000
Narsingdi (UNB) When the government struggles to cushion the effects of high oil prices in the international market, a huge quantity of crude oil is being pilfered from Bianibazar-Ashuganj pipeline and the ships of Petrobangla. According to competent sources, an organised gang has been pilfering the crude oil by leaking the pipeline paralleled to 178-km Bianibazar-Ashuganj gas transmission lines, causing huge loss to the government exchequer and putting their own lives at risk. They said some 4 lakh liters of crude oil are pilfered every month from the pipeline while 50 lakh liters worth over Tk 5 crore a year. Petrobangla collects gas and crude oil from different gas fields of Sylhet through pipelines and stores it at Gas Metering and Manifold Station at Battola reservoir in Ashuganj. Generally, crude oil up to three lakh liters is stored at the reservoir everyday against its capacity of 30 lakh liters. Gas Transmission Company Limited (GTCL) supplies the gas through its own pipeline to various fertilizer factories and power plants while Sylhet Gas Field Limited sends the crude oil to Eastern Refinery in Chittagong either by roads or river routes. Official sources said most pilferage occurs on the Habiganj-Ashuganj portion of the line. Despite repeated attempts, authorities have failed to control the oil pilferage from the pipelines as a section of GTCL employees was said to have involved in it. Worried at the rising trend of pilferage, State Minister for Energy, Power and Mineral Resources on Sept 29 visited the spots from where the oil is being pilfered and directed the authorities for making arrangement for police patrol in Ashuganj-Khatihata areas to check the pilferage. Field level GTCL officials said the pilferers leaked the pipelines at least at 15 points and the company people had caught some of them on a number occasions and handed them over to police. But it failed to prevent the thieves from stealing the crude oil. They said the gangsters steal the oil by linking GI pipe to the crude oil pipeline making the entire system vulnerable. The stolen crude oil is sold to different oil depots and fuel shops. The shop and depot owners then dilute kerosene and diesel with its before selling to the customers. Talking to the UNB correspondent, GTCL General Manager Abu Salek Sufi said the stealing process and use of crude oil are equally dangerous as crude oil is a byproduct of gas and its an explosive until it is refined. The thieves sell the crude oil at different oil depots and oil shops in Bhairab, Narayanganj and Narsingdi. The crude oil from Sonarampur gas filed of Banchranpur upazila in Brahmanbaria district is siphoned to the ships of Petrobangla in Morichakandi launch ghat of the same upazila through pipeline while it is sent it to the Eastern Refinery. Crude oil of the gas field and the Ashuganj reservoir is also peculated on way to the Eastern Refinery by a section of dishonest employees of Petrobangla. They sell it to an organised gang at Bhairab, Raipura and Narsingdi Sadar, and Fatullah and Bandar in Narayanganj. The members of this gang collect the crude oil from ships and then sell it to the depot owners. Such an illegal selling of crude oil was detected on the bank of river Titas in Brahmanbaria in July this year. The employees of a ship, Sonargaon, sold crude oil worth over Tk one crore in Narayanganj on river Sitalakhaya recently and a fire broke out in the cargo boat that was carrying the liquid. Earlier on May 20, 1996, such a fire broke out in a boat of oil pilferers at Bhairab and firefighters from local fire station put out the blaze. |