Crude Oil Shortage Forces Shutdown of Bangladesh’s Sole Refinery

Operations at Eastern Refinery came to a complete standstill on Monday afternoon after exhausting all available crude oil stocks, including residual oil from pipelines and "dead stock" from storage tanks. The shutdown is a direct consequence of the ongoing Iran-US conflict, which has disrupted crude oil imports for the past two months.

While ERL usually processes 4,500 tons of oil daily, supply constraints had already forced a reduction in output weeks ago. Despite the refinery closure, the Energy Division maintains that there is an adequate reserve of refined fuel and that the domestic supply chain will remain unaffected. However, with the next shipment of crude oil not expected until the first week of May, the refinery will remain inactive for several weeks.