Chattogram: A Hong Kong-flagged ship named ‘Quichi’ has reached the outer anchorage of the Chattogram port, carrying 26,500 tonnes of octane from Malaysia. This marks the third octane shipment to arrive in April, following previous shipments of 26,000 tonnes and 27,000 tonnes on April 8 and April 17.
According to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, officials estimate that the current octane supply can meet the country’s daily demand of 1,200 tonnes for over two months. The ship’s arrival was delayed by approximately 15 hours due to adverse weather conditions, reaching the outer anchorage on April 30 instead of the expected time on April 29 at 8 pm.
Local agent Pride Shipping Line has announced that the oil unloading operation from the ship ‘Quichi’ will commence this afternoon. Managing Partner Nazrul Islam mentioned that adverse weather conditions and rough seas were responsible for the delay in the ship’s arrival.
Currently, five ships are positioned at the outer anchorage, with three having already berthed and undergoing oil unloading since Tuesday. Two more ships joined the operation on Tuesday. This morning, the last ship carrying octane from Malaysia arrived. Nazrul Islam noted that the delay in unloading is due to the limited number of Dolphin Jetties at the port, which prevents all ships from berthing simultaneously. Additionally, the arrival of several large ships last week necessitated the use of small mother vessels for oil unloading.
Due to inclement weather, the pace of oil unloading has decelerated, potentially delaying the berthing of the ship that arrived today until May 2. On Tuesday, a Hong Kong-flagged vessel named ‘Gran Kuva’ arrived at Chattogram Port around 3 pm carrying 34,000 tonnes of diesel from India. Later that day, a Singapore-flagged ship called ‘Hafnia Marlin’ arrived at the port around 11 pm with 10,000 tonnes of diesel from China.