Oil stolen by drilling the pipeline at Mirsarai: inquiry makes 10 recommendations, 375,418 litres of diesel unaccounted for at Fatullah
An inquiry committee formed over the theft of oil by drilling into the underground fuel pipeline of the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) at Mirsarai in Chattogram has made 10 recommendations. Around the Chattogram-Dhaka pipeline, built to prevent theft, a series of irregularities and security weaknesses is now coming to light.
The incident came to public attention on 8 January this year. North of Hadi Fakirhat Bazar in Wahedpur Union of Mirsarai upazila, west of the Dhaka-Chattogram highway, a tin-shed house was built over the pipeline and, from inside it, the underground oil pipeline was drilled with special equipment to arrange the theft. Although this went on secretly for a long time, it did not come to notice because of the house built over the pipeline.
Local resident Md Absar built a house on government land near the pipeline and rented it out. Later another tin-shed house was built in front of it and rented to a man named Amirul Islam from the Sonadanga area of Khulna. After renting the house, Amirul and his accomplices used special equipment to drill into the underground pipeline and also installed a connection to collect oil from there.
On the night of 7 January, when pressure in the pipeline rose, the connection installed for the theft was damaged. At one stage oil began rising through the hole and spreading around. As the situation went out of control, Amirul and those involved fled the scene. The next morning, when local people saw oil coming out and began collecting it in various containers, the incident became known.
On receiving the news, officials from the upazila administration, police, fire service and BPC reached the scene. Local people were moved away to avoid an accident and work began to repair the damaged part of the pipeline. Several drums, a drill machine and various other equipment used in the oil theft were recovered from the scene.
After the incident, on 10 January the Petroleum Transmission Company (PTC) PLC, a subsidiary of BPC, formed a five-member inquiry committee to assess the pipeline damage and the quantity of stolen oil. The committee, convened by Aminul Haq, director of the Chattogram-Dhaka pipeline project, was asked to submit its report within seven working days. At the end of the inquiry the committee identified weaknesses in the pipeline's security, maintenance and surveillance and made 10 recommendations.
The recommendations include taking necessary action under the contract against JSS Service Limited, which was in charge of pipeline security, for failure in duty; removing businesses set up on Roads and Highways Department land near the pipeline; and immediately removing houses, shops and trees from land acquired along the pipeline and evicting illegal structures.
The committee also recommended ensuring the effectiveness of modern technology and strengthening security; quickly replacing the optical fibre cable (OFC) to ensure the effectiveness of SCADA, PIDS, the telecommunication system and CCTV for uninterrupted monitoring of pipeline operation and security; quickly appointing experienced and skilled people to ensure necessary manpower at PTC PLC; formulating a specific policy to protect the pipeline's right of way (security corridor) and passing a security law; and updating the distance of pipeline chainage posts and writing the terminal control room's working mobile number on the posts instead of the listed telephone number.
The inquiry report also revealed serious faults in the automation system. On 8 January, while oil was being taken out through the drilled pipeline, the PIDS and LDS installed in the control room of the dispatch terminal gave no signal. Officials therefore could not learn of it through technology; the matter came to the authorities' notice only after staff of the firm in charge of security informed them by mobile phone. The inquiry found that in the three months from 1 October 2025 to 7 January 2026, PIDS became ineffective 108 times, and because of faults in field instruments LDS was effectively ineffective for 49 days.
The report further said that on 9 January, during excavation with an excavator and the fitting of a repair clamp on the hole for pipeline repair, PIDS again gave no signal, although by design the system should signal when digging takes place within 10 to 20 metres of the pipeline. In addition, four servers of the SCADA system at the Godnail receipt terminal — SCADA primary, SCADA secondary, LDS and wave server — had been out of order since 1 November 2025. Although the servers were reinstalled on 11 January, they had not become effective by the time the inquiry report was submitted.
Alongside direct theft from the pipeline, there are also allegations that a large quantity of diesel has gone missing through accounting discrepancies at the Fatullah depot. According to Jamuna Oil's internal accounts, a total of 375,418 litres of diesel supplied through the pipeline in two phases cannot be accounted for. Of this, a shortfall of 262,804 litres was found in the first phase and 112,614 litres in the second phase. In a letter sent to the managing director on 24 September 2025, Jamuna Oil's operations division said the difference was found during supply from 24 June to 4 July in the first phase and from 14 to 22 September in the second phase. Allegations have also been raised of inconsistencies in determining the capacity of the depot's tanks 22 and 23 and of manipulation in calibration certificates.
In another similar incident, a pipeline carrying condensate for the national grid was drilled and stolen from at Madhabpur in Habiganj. An organised syndicate installed an illegal connection in the pipeline and stole 4,292 litres of condensate in two days, which was later stored in a secret underground tank. In that incident, the Gas Transmission Company Limited (GTCL) filed a case at Madhabpur police station on Wednesday night against four to five people including Islam Uddin of Ratanpur village, a former UP member of Noapara Union.
About Tk 3,699 crore was spent on BPC's roughly 250-kilometre Chattogram-Dhaka petroleum pipeline (CDPL) project. Construction began in 2018, direct oil transport through the pipeline began in June 2024, and the project was formally inaugurated on 16 August 2025. Built with capacity to transport five million tonnes of fuel oil a year, the project was expected to save Tk 236 crore a year, and its aim was to reduce the risk, theft and system loss of transporting oil by river in ships and tankers.
BPC chairman Dr Md Rafiqul Islam said one of the main purposes of building the pipeline was to reduce transport cost and system loss, prevent waste and ensure fast and safe fuel supply. However, after an oil-theft incident in the pipeline came to light, steps have been taken to further strengthen security and surveillance. He said arrangements are being made to monitor the pipeline through optical fibre cable, but because the pipeline runs beside a road there is a technical problem in distinguishing vehicle noise from the noise of illegal interference, and work is under way to solve it.
In the Mirsarai incident, BPC's DGM (administration-finance) Mahbubur Rahman filed a case as plaintiff at Mirsarai police station. The case named three people and accused another four to five unidentified people. The house owner's wife, Nurjahan Begum, was detained for questioning. Later the named accused, house owner Md Absar, was arrested and sent to jail through the court. Mirsarai police station OC Farida Yasmin said the named accused house owner has been arrested and operations are continuing to arrest the other accused.
After the incident, part of the house built over the pipeline was demolished, but the western part still remains. On a visit last Friday it was seen that the house's electricity connection is disconnected, it is locked, and there are no goods inside. Local resident Iftikhar Hossain said that although the pipeline was repaired, no signboard with special instructions was put up there, a signboard should have been there, the western part of the house should also have been demolished, and after such a big incident more precautionary measures are essential.
