LOIC has arbitrarily and intentionally gone back on the promises by not getting down necessary petrol to the island but conspired to create a fuel crisis in the island and taking advantage of this situation an attempt is being made to unload substandard fuel says the Leader of the JVP Anura Dissanayaka making a special statement in Parliament today (7th).
I would like to draws the attention of this august assembly to the inconveniences confronted in the transport sector due to the shortage of fuel that has been created in the country. People have been immensely inconvenienced due to the shortage of petrol in many parts of the island. Also, the situation is developing into a situation that affects the economy of the country. The main reason for this is said to be the rejection of unloading a ship of fuel imported by LIOC due to its substandard quality.
However, there are several main factors that should be considered. The first is the step taken by the government to import fuel without following the proper process. Specially, fuel was imported in the past according to long-term contract basis. However, recently, despite a company had been selected after calling for tenders, without giving it cabinet approval, fuel had been bought ad hoc from the market. As a result, there had been a loss of US$40 million during the past few months. I hope to present statistics regarding this to the assembly soon.
The second is Ceylon Petroleum Corporation doesn’t have adequate storing facilities. The storing facility that exists at present is sufficient only for a week. At Trincomalee in China Bay oil tank farm there are 99 tanks and in 2003 the Prime Minister gave the use of the tanks to LIOC in a document for 35 years. However, as they had not entered into a lease agreement within 6 months from 01.03.2003 as stipulated in 1.2 paragraph in the document the occupancy of LIOC is illegal. They only use 8 tanks and the cabinet decision taken in April, 2016 to allow CPC to use 10 tanks the Prime Minister negated by his cabinet paper presented on 06.06.2016. The attempt of the government is to hand over the tanks to LIOC legally.
The third is the breakdown of the refinery at Sapugaskanda. This had been built in 1969 and is in a dilapidated state. The issue has been intensified due to an urgent breakdown. Despite a foundation stone was laid deceptively to build a new refinery, no such refinery has been built. On the other hand a justifiable suspicion brought up by the trade unions is that LOIC has arbitrarily and intentionally gone back on the promises by not getting down necessary petrol to the island but conspired to create a fuel crisis in the island and taking advantage of this situation an attempt is being made to unload substandard fuel brought by the ship.
I expect the relent minister to present to the assembly answers to the following questions.
1. Can LIOC reject, according to its own wishes, ships bringing fuel? How are they controlled and what steps have been taken?
2. Why are buffer stocks maintained so that people need not waste time on the roads just because a ship of fuel has been rejected? What is the process of maintaining buffer stocks and how long can such a stock last?
3. What is the step taken regarding the company that failed to supply fuel? What is the process followed to super wise such moves?
4. Why are steps not taken to hand over the import of fuel to the institute that was selected after a tender process?
5. Why are steps not taken to restore Sapugaskanda refinery?
6. What is the programme of the government to avoid such a situation?
Don’t talk nonsense Anura. LIOC is only responsible for the 18pct of the fuel requirement of the country,. If their stocks don’t arrive the whole country cannot be without oil. This is intentionally caused by the CPC .There should be a no-confidence against the Minister of Petroleum who should quit his job for this fiasco.
7. Why was the act of filtration on board not undertaken, when
such has been done in the past?