Petroleum Industries Minister of Sri Lanka, Susil Premajayantha said there will be no shortage of fuel in the country due to the closure of the refinery as the government has taken measures to import oil from other sources, according to Colombo Page.
The petroleum authority switched off the country’s only oil refinery in Sapugaskanda due to shortage of supplies of Iranian crude oil which has been affected by the U.S. imposed sanctions on Iran.
The refinery which refines 50,000 barrels of oil per day has been hit by acute shortage.
Minister Premajayantha said letters of credit had been issued to import 215,000 metric tons of crude for the month of November and two ships with crude will be arriving in Colombo port next month.
He added that measures have been taken to import further shipments of crude from Oman and Saudi Arabia.
According to Sri Lanka’s petroleum authority, Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC), a ship carrying 80,000 tonnes of Omar Light crude oil is due to arrive on November 10th.
Following the receipt of the shipment, the Sapugaskanda refinery which halted operations since yesterday due to unavailability of Iranian crude oil will restart operations, probably from mid-November.
Another vessel carrying 130,000 tonnes of Arabian Light crude oil will arrive by December, the CPC said.
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