Three foreign consultant firms are likely to submit request for proposal (RFP) for construction of the USD 1.5 billion second unit of Eastern Refinery Limited (ERL), sources in the Energy Division under the ministry of power, energy and mineral resources said.

The foreign firms are Fostler Wheeler of Thailand, Worley Person of China, and EIL of India. The firms will submit the RFP by July 31 this year.
Speaking to The Independent, GM Afzal, managing director of ERL, said five firms were short-listed among the 16 consultant firms who submitted their offers on April 5 last, after the energy ministry invited tenders in March.
Out of the five short-listed companies, the three firms will submit RFP. The other two -- Flour Daniel Incorporation of Thailand and KBR of the United Kingdom -- have backed out, said Afzal.
“After their RFP submission, the ERL, Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) and the Energy Division will select one consultant,” said Afzal.
Mosleh Uddin, BPC's director of operation and planning, told The Independent that the consultant would prepare the tender documents as well as the complete design.
“The consultant will work till the commissioning of the second unit,” he said.
The total demand of petroleum products in the country is 6.5 million tonnes annually, of which about 1.2 million tonnes to 1.4 million tonnes are produced by the ERL. The remaining is imported as finished products. As a result, a huge amount of foreign currency is spent on importing refined petroleum products.
With the construction of the new refinery unit, dependence on the import of refined products will be reduced significantly, said Mosleh Uddin.
France's state-owned Technip, which constructed the first unit of ERL in 1968 with 1.5 million tonnes capacity, has expressed interest to get the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of the ERL’s second unit.
Speaking to The Independent, Abu Bakar Siddique, secretary of the Energy Division, said Technip sent a letter to the finance ministry, expressing its interest to construct the ERL’s second unit. The finance ministry forwarded the proposal to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
“The PMO sent the proposal to us,”
said Siddique, adding that the Energy Division had asked the BPC to evaluate Technip’s proposal.
The Energy Division also issued a letter instructing the ERL to ask Technip to submit a complete proposal with the sources of funding for the project’s implementation, as the company had earlier expressed its interest in this regard, said Siddique.
Earlier, the state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) of China showed its interest to install the unit after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is also in charge of the power, energy and mineral resources ministry, gave her consent in January 2014 to invite the EOI under the Speedy Supply of Power and Energy (Special Provision) Act.