B.Mirror Desk: Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) has formed a six-member investigation committee to investigate the matter amid allegations that the company has applied anew while concealing the fact that its previous application for permission to operate a refinery was rejected. However, the note presented to the BPC board for the formation of the committee did not mention the rejection of the previous application. Rather, the officer who prepared the note was made the member secretary of the investigation committee.
The committee was formed on Tuesday (August 25) by an office order signed by BPC Secretary and Deputy Secretary to the government Shahina Sultana. The committee has been asked to visit the Super Petrochemical plant, collect detailed information about the company’s processing capacity increase and the progress of the project and submit a report within seven days.
BPC Secretary Shahina Sultana said, “The note has been approved by the operations department. They are the ones who appointed the committee members and presented the note. The committee was formed after the note was approved. The committee has been asked to review several media reports and submit a report within seven days.
When asked about the allegations of concealment of information in the note presented to the board, he said, “I am not aware of the matter. After approval, I have issued an office order to form the committee as per the rules.”
As per the BPC order, Senior General Manager (Accounts) ATM Selim has been made the convener of the committee. Tanjin Hossain, Deputy Manager of BPC’s Trade and Operations Branch, has been made the member secretary. The other members of the committee are BPC’s General Manager (Finance) Morshed Hossain Azad, General Manager (Distribution and Marketing) Ferdousi Masum Himel, General Manager (Trade and Operations) Zahid Hossain and Eastern Refinery PLC’s Deputy General Manager (Planning and Shipping) Md. Masudul Alam.
The office order said that the committee will review the relevant news reports and also conduct an on-site inspection of the Super Petrochemical plant. After that, the report will be submitted to the BPC chairman with detailed information about the increase in the processing capacity of the plant and the progress of the project.
Along with the report titled ‘Super Petrochemical is building a refinery even after the application was rejected’ published in the media, several media reports have also been attached to the order for the formation of the committee.
However, a review of the note presented to the BPC board for the formation of the committee shows that the important information about the rejection of Super Petrochemical’s previous application was not mentioned there. However, the note mentions the company’s application in 2024, the subsequent formation of the BPC investigation committee, and the sending of the committee’s report to the Energy and Mineral Resources Department in April 2025.
The note states that on September 25, 2024, Super Petrochemical applied for permission to import, store and process crude oil as an existing refinery and market the fuel oil produced by importing, storing and processing it under its own management in light of the ‘Private Refinery Establishment, Crude Fuel Oil Import, Storage, Processing, Transportation and Marketing Policy-2023’.
In view of that application, BPC formed a committee under the direction of the Energy and Mineral Resources Department. On October 23, 2024, the six-member committee was formed with the then General Manager (Distribution and Marketing) Zahid Hossain as the convener. Later, an officer of Eastern Refinery was co-opted into the committee.
On February 19, 2025, the committee members visited Super Petrochemical’s CRU plant and the proposed project area located in Juldha Union area on the south bank of the Karnaphuli River. After the inspection and review of the application, the seven-member committee submitted its report to the BPC chairman on April 8. Later, the report was sent to the Energy and Mineral Resources Department on April 20.
Then, on November 16, 2025, the Operation-1 branch of the Energy and Mineral Resources Department sent a letter to the Managing Director of Super Petrochemical informing him of the decision to reject the company’s application dated September 25, 2024.
Two and a half months after the application was rejected, on January 29, 2026, Super Petrochemical’s Managing Director Mohammad Mustafa Haider applied again to the Secretary of the Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Department.
The new application states that Super Petrochemical is setting up a crude oil refinery with a capacity of 1.5 million metric tons per year to produce Euro-5 standard petroleum products. If the project is implemented, the company’s annual production capacity will stand at 15 lakh 46 thousand 381 metric tons. The application also mentions the installation of diesel hydrotreater, residue desulfurization and isomerization units in the refinery along with the crude distillation unit.
However, there is no mention of the rejection of the previous application in this second application. Even the source of the 2024 application is not given in it.
After the new application, the Energy and Mineral Resources Department sought the opinion of the BPC on February 3. In view of this, the matter was reviewed in the 1017th board meeting of the BPC held on February 8. The minutes of the meeting clearly mention the rejection of the previous application.
The minutes state that the Unit-2 project of Eastern Refinery Limited (ERL) has already been approved. If the project is implemented, it will be possible to ensure full utilization of the previously implemented SPM project and the fuel oil refining capacity at the government level will increase three times.
For this reason, the board opined that there is a need to review in more depth the issue of allowing Super Petrochemical to import, store, transport and process crude fuel oil and market the fuel oil produced under its own management.
The minutes further mentioned that on November 16, 2025, the Department of Energy and Mineral Resources rejected Super Petrochemical’s 2024 application. The relevant provisions of the Condensate Policy, 2014 were also mentioned behind that decision. It was stated that petrol, octane, diesel, kerosene or LPG obtained by processing condensate collected or imported for fractionation plants established at the private level cannot be directly marketed in the domestic market.
On the other hand, a review of the BPC’s note sheet dated August 23 and Super Petrochemical’s second application shows that the information about the rejection of the previous application is not mentioned in both cases. In particular, the note prepared for the formation of the committee mentioned the application for 2024 and the subsequent process, but the rejection of the application was not highlighted.
The note was prepared by Tanjin Hossain, Deputy Manager of the Commerce and Operations Department of BPC. Later, the Manager of the same department, Md. Istiak Hossain, and the Divisional Chief General Manager, Mohammad Zahid Hossain, signed the note. After that, after the signature of Director (Operations) AK Mohammad Shamsul Ahsan, the Additional Secretary of the Energy and Mineral Resources Department, who is in additional charge of the Chairman of BPC, Manjur Alam Pradhan approved the note.
When asked about the allegations of concealment of information in the note presented to the board, Tanjin Hossain, Member Secretary of the Investigation Committee, said, “The rejection of the first application for the refinery of Super Petrochemical was informed to the higher authorities in another confidential letter. Therefore, the matter was not mentioned in the note sheet for the formation of the committee.”
He also said, “Now the committee has been formed. The committee will definitely scrutinize the entire issue and submit a report.’
An attempt was made to contact BPC Director (Operations) AK Mohammad Shamsul Ahsan on his mobile phone to get his statement on the matter, but it was found disconnected. Later, despite repeated calls to the personal and official numbers of BPC Chairman Manjur Alam Pradhan, who is additionally in charge of the matter, he did not respond. There was also no response to the message sent on WhatsApp.
The six-member committee now formed will review the news reports as well as inspect the Super Petrochemical plant on-site and verify the actual progress of the project, processing capacity and refinery establishment activities. The committee is scheduled to submit its report within seven days.