The Sapugaskanda Oil Refinery will temporarily shut down tomorrow due to a shortage of crude oil, a senior official of the Sapugaskanda Oil Refinery told media.
This is the first time that the Sapugaskanda oil refinery will be closed due to lack of crude oil.
Udaya Gammanpila, Minister of Energy and Sumith Wijesinghe, Chairman of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation stated that a special media briefing will be held tomorrow afternoon.
President of the Petroleum General Employees Union Dr. Ashoka Ranwala said the reason for the closure of the refinery was the lack of crude oil and the ship carrying the crude oil is scheduled to arrive in the third week of December. Until then the refinery has to be closed, the official said.
It is learned that the 90,000 metric tons of crude oil from the crude oil tanker, which will arrive in December, will be sufficient for only 15 days and another shipment is expected again in mid-January.
However, when inquired Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila has stated that there will be no oil shortage. He has said that there are sufficient stocks of oil in the country and if there is a shortage of oil he will say so beforehand.
Ceylon Petroleum Corporation’s (CPC) Jathika Sevaka Sangamaya wing (JSS) Secretary Ananda Palitha has cautioned that there will be a shortage of kerosene in the country as the 100 percent kerosene requirement for the country is manufactured by the refinery.