Law enforcers have launched a hunt for the pirates who seized an oil tanker and looted 350 metric tonnes of furnace oil, authorities said on Sunday, three days after the incident. The tanker was carrying over 360 metric tonnes of furnace oil when it was attacked on Friday in Dhaleshwari-Shitalakkhya confluence near Char Mukterpur in Munshiganj. No arrest has been made until today and law enforcers are yet to recover the looted oil. The oil tanker, heading towards Gazipur from Narayanganj, was seized in the confluence around 6am on Friday. The armed pirates ambushed the running ship ‘OT Bin Zaman-1’ near the spot (confluence) while it was taking a turn. The six crew members, including the captain, were overpowered at gunpoint and their mobile phones and other valuables seized. The pirates blindfolded the crew with black cloth, locked them in the engine room, and took control of the tanker. After looting 350 MT out of 360.036 MT of furnace oil, worth around Tk 3.5 crore, the hijackers abandoned the tanker, owned by King Fisher Shipping Company, near the Meghna Bridge around 8:30pm and fled the scene. Summit Group is the owner of the furnace oil. Read: French destroyer in EU mission rescues 29 mariners from oil tanker stricken in Red Sea attacks The vessel's captain Saizul Islam said they had set sail from Summit Power in Narayanganj’s Madanganj area at 6am on Friday to deliver it to Summit Power in Gazipur. He said that six masked pirates with arms boarded the vessel initially and called one by "Dalim" during the attack. Fazlul Ahmed, manager of the shipping company, said that they lost contact with the ship, prompting them to alert the law enforcement.

The MV-Sagar Nandini-2 vessel carrying 11 lakh metric tonnes of furnace oil, which sank in the Meghna River on Sunday, could not be salvaged till Tuesday. Already three vessels have reached in the Meghna River to salvage the vessel. Besides, local administration has formed a nine -member probe body, headed by Additional District Magistrate Ripon Kumar Saha, to look into the incident. The committee has been asked to submit its report within seven working days. Read more: Oil spill in Meghna river threatening environment, vessel still not recovered after 36 hours Md Shahjahan, director of river protection and management division of Bangladesh Inland and Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) visited the spot in the morning and said they are trying to recover the furnace oil from the river. To salvage a sunken vessel from the river is a time consuming matter as there are some explosive substances inside the vessel, he said. The main aim is to recover oil from the river, he added. If there is any negligence on the part of master found during investigation then action will be taken against him, said Shahjahan. Three vessels of SHR Navigation Company Limited—Sagar Badhu-3, Sagar Badhu-4 and Sagar Nandini-3---are trying to salvage the sunken vessel as per the decision of the owners as the BIWTA expressed incapability of salvaging the vessel, he said. He also expected to finish their salvage operation by Wednesday. Read more: Vessel with 11 lakh litre fuel sinks in Meghna river Vessel with 11 lakh litre fuel sinks in Meghna river Staff officer of Coast Guard South Zone, Lieutenant M Hasan Mehedi, said the coast guard members have been providing security to the sunken vessel round the clock since Sunday and already a barge named ‘Humaira’ from Chandpur is on the way to salvage the vessel. The oil chambers inside the vessel have been sealed by the divers and there is no scope to spill out oil, he said. Meanwhile, a large area in the Meghna river has been polluted by furnace oil spill since the vessel with 11 lakh litres of oil sank in the river — posing threat to biodiversity and environment. Jamal Hossain, senior fisheries officer of Bhola Fisheries Department, said fish in the river will be in danger due to the oil spill. A lighter vessel with 11 lakh litres of fuel sank after being hit by another vessel in Meghna river due to dense fog in sadar upazila of Bhola district early Sunday. KM Shafiul Kinjal, media officer of Coast Guard South Zone, said the vessel named ‘Sagar Nandini-2’ from Chattogram port sank in Meghna as another vessel hit it at Tulatuli Majher Char while heading towards Chandpur Padma Depot around 4am on Sunday. The accident took place due to poor visibility caused by the dense fog. All the fuel spilled into the river. Local people later collected the fuel in containers. Fortunately, all 13 crew members of the vessel have been rescued by another vessel passing through the area.

A purchase order by the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) to import extra quantities of diesel and furnace oil has put the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) in big trouble. According to official sources, the BPDB placed an extra order to BPC to import 105,800 metric tons of diesels and 101,000 MT of furnace oil for the month of October this year to meet its requirement in the liquid fuel-fired power plants run by private operators as well as by the government. Read:Govt starts feeling pinch of price surge of petroleum on the global market The BPC promptly moved to import the petroleum to avert any crisis in the power generation. “But this emergency import of the two fuel items has ultimately put the BPC in big trouble as the BPDB is not now receiving the extra fuel”, said a top official of the BPC preferring not be named. He noted this extra import of furnace oil and diesel has created an extra burden for the BPC as it has very limited storage capacity. “We had to import the fuel at a higher price and keep the petroleum in the vessel for several days in the sea”, he added.     Sources said the BPC already informed the BPDB through a letter dated October 27 about the trouble with the imported extra fuels. In the letter, the BPC mentioned that the BPDB has received only 25,836 MT of diesel against a purchase order for 105,800 MT and 41,704 MT of furnace oil against a purchase order of 101,000 MT of furnace oil. “If the BPDB does not receive the remaining oils, it would not be possible to further import the petroleum as per requirement”, the letter warned the principal petroleum marketing agency. The BPC also demanded compensation from the BPPB for its demurrage to be paid to the fuel carrying ships. Read: Proposals for LNG, petroleum, wheat import get clearance BPDB (member) generation Ashraful Islam, however, denied the allegation saying that BPDB will receive the extra fuel in second week of December for conducting a test-run into its newly built 330 MW power plants in Khulna. “We will conduct a test run for the new power plant for six days and we will require 67,000 MT of fuel for the operation”, he said. He admitted that in the coming days the requirement of diesel and furnace oil will decline during the coming winter.   

Chattogram, Apr 30 (UNB) – The local administration is struggling to scoop 105,000 litres of furnace oil from a canal linked to the Halda River as severe cyclonic storm ‘Fani’ intensified further on Tuesday and gradually headed for the coast.