Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila said yesterday that discussions are underway with a number of countries to obtain long-term credit facilities for the import of fuel, conceding that there is a huge challenge of allocating US dollars (USD) for the import of fuel at the moment.
Speaking in Parliament yesterday, Gammanpila said that globally, a litre of crude oil is expected to reach $ 115 by mid March.
“We spend $ 500 million on fuel imports per month – this is 50% of our export income. There is a huge challenge of importing fuel at the moment – we admit that. It is not a fuel or medicine shortage that is present in the country at the moment – it is a USD shortage. But we are in discussions to acquire long-term credit facilities to import fuel from a number of countries,” said Gammanpila.
The price of a litre of Brent crude oil reached $ 99 on Tuesday (22), aggravated by the Ukrainian crisis. A special Cabinet of Ministers’ meeting was held on Tuesday evening to discuss the fuel and power crises.
“There is a petrol ship in our waters now. Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa promised at the said meeting that he will do the needful so that we can start unloading its stocks. There was a shortage of both diesel and petrol stocks at fuel stations over the past few days. The ship carrying diesel stocks started unloading last morning, after the Treasury instructed the Central Bank of Sri Lanka to make the necessary payments. I can bring the fuel ships to our waters. However, releasing the stocks is a matter of giving USD. So far, we have not turned away even one ship,” added Gammanpila.
At the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, it was decided to not revise fuel prices and for the Government to settle a payment of Rs. 80 billion to the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) for the continuous supply of fuel. The CPC has been requesting a fuel price hike the entire month, following an increase of the prices by the Lanka Indian Oil Corporation (LIOC) during the first week of February.
Meanwhile, speaking in Parliament, United National Party (UNP) Parliamentarian Ranil Wickremesinghe noted that spot purchases of fuel should be paid off as soon as possible, in order to ensure that Sri Lanka does not end up paying over $ 100 for older purchases in the future.