Two more ships carrying diesel and a tanker carrying fuel oil are scheduled to arrive in Sri Lanka this afternoon (25) and dollars have to be found to pay for the shipments, a senior official of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation said yesterday.
A letter of credit of $ 33 million is required to pay for 38,400-tonne shipment of petrol that is scheduled to arrive today at the port of Colombo said Energy Ministry Secretary K.D.R Olga.
When inquired by Lankadeepa, the General Manager of the Petroleum Storage Terminal Samindra Abeysekara has said that even though the petrol tanker which had been in Sri Lankan waters for three days is cleared after paying the dollars, it is not possible to unload the fuel.
Mr. Abeysekera said that diesel and petrol are being unloaded by two ships at the two landing terminals at present, adding that although the other petrol tanker was released, it would take a few days to start unloading fuel.
On Wednesday (23) the state-run Bank of Ceylon released $35.3 million to pay for a 40,000-tonne shipment of diesel that had been waiting at the Colombo Port for four days.
People across the country were severely inconvenienced yesterday (25) for the fourth day in a row due to the shortage of diesel. Many of the fuel stations were out of stock of diesel, with only super diesel and petrol available.
Signs reading ‘No Diesel’ were displayed at many petrol stations and long queues were seen at many filling stations.
Courtesy: Colombo Page
