NEW DELHI – Sri Lanka today temporarily closed its Sapugaskanda oil refinery due to a shortage of foreign exchange to secure crude for the facility.
“Sapugaskanda Refinery will be closed from today due to shortage in forex for crude oil cargoes” Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekara said.
However, there will be no shortage in refined products as state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) has adequate stocks of all products and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) has made available the weekly foreign exchange requirements for refined products, the minister added.
The shortage of hard currencies for payment of two Ural crude cargos already used at the refinery has led to the decision to close down the refinery, Wijesekara said.
The refinery, commissioned 52 years ago, has a capacity to refine 50,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
“As soon as adequate forex is available to CPC the 100,000 metric tonnes (mt) ESPO crude oil cargo in Sri Lankan waters for the last 10 days will be unloaded,” the minister said.
Sri Lanka is facing serious energy shortages as regular imports of fuel shipments are hampered due to the hard currency crunch in the country’s worst economic crisis.
The government this year introduced a “National Fuel Pass”, a rationing system for an orderly distribution of fuel to registered vehicles. – Bernama, October 7, 2022
