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Cabinet trashes Yugadanavi deal info embargo claims

07 Dec 2021

  • Denies reports that details of New Fortress-Treasury deal cannot be revealed for 2 years
BY Pamodi Waravita Cabinet Co-Spokesman Dr. Ramesh Pathirana said yesterday (7) that news reports which state that details about the agreement between the US-based energy company New Fortress Energy Inc. and the Treasury Department cannot be revealed for two years, are false. “It is untrue that details of the deal with the New Fortress Energy Inc. cannot be revealed until two years lapse. Details and concerns about this have also been discussed in recent discussions between the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) engineers and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. In the future, further discussions will be done regarding this with CEB employees,” said Dr. Pathirana at the cabinet press briefing held yesterday to announce the cabinet decisions. In a press release issued in September 2021, New Fortress Energy Inc. said that it would acquire 40% of the shares of the 310 megawatts (MW) Yugadanavi Power Plant in Colombo and that as part of the agreement, it would also provide about 1.2 million gallons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the Government per day through a LNG terminal which will be built off the shores of Colombo. The New Fortress Energy Inc. deal has received much criticism over the past month as it has allegedly been carried out outside of the proper tender procurement process and without proper Cabinet of Ministers approval. CEB Chairman M.M.C. Ferdinando said recently that the content of the agreement cannot be disclosed due to a condition in the agreement and that the agreement has not even been presented to the CEB yet. The CEB Engineers’ Union (CEBEU) met with Premier Rajapaksa over the weekend regarding the matter, and told The Morning that the meeting had been “positive” as Rajapaksa had noted their concerns. The main Opposition Samagi Jana Balawegeya (SJB) last week questioned why the controversial agreement has still not been presented to the Parliament, as promised by Power Minister Gamini Lokuge in October. “They have sold our energy security, a component of our national security, shamelessly to the US. They have given our Yugadanavi Power Plant without even showing the agreement to the Parliament. Lokuge said that he will present it to Parliament over a month ago. Where is it? It was signed in July,” queried SJB General Secretary Ranjith Madduma Bandara in Parliament on 29 November. The CEBEU has also been involved in ongoing trade union action over six main demands, including the withdrawal of the New Fortress Energy inc. agreement, which they claim is “illegal”. Two power outages were reported in Sri Lanka over the last two weeks, with the most recent one on 3 December being an islandwide blackout. Allegations have been levelled at the CEBEU for deliberately disrupting the power supply, although the CEBEU has claimed that their trade union action had no connection to it. “The Government is focused on finding out whether the power outages were acts of sabotage. Investigations are being conducted into the matter and we will release details once we get the information about it,” said Dr. Pathirana regarding the matter. Although power has since been restored, the CEB announced yesterday that hour-long power outages will continue in different places around the island until today (8) as the Norochcholai Power Plant is yet to be fully operational since the power outage on 3 December.


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