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No Chinese involvement in building Hambantota oil tank farm

02 Aug 2020

 

To be built on local funds

Petroleum Industries Minister Mahinda Amaraweera ruled out any involvement of a Chinese investor in building a new oil tank farm in Hambantota, as he revealed to The Sunday Morning that the tank farm would be built utilising local funds while the fundraising mechanism was yet to be finalised. The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) has taken steps to build a new oil tank farm in Hambantota to secure at least 25 storage tanks from the Trincomalee Oil Tank Farm with the Indian Government and the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). Minister Amaraweera said the CPC is currently looking for suitable land to build the new fuel tank complex in Hambantota. The Petroleum Ministry through the Foreign Ministry had sought the intervention of the Government of India to take back 25 tanks in China Bay. As learnt by The Sunday Morning, a cabinet paper had been submitted seeking approval to go for an agreement with IOC to get back 25 tanks at the China Bay Oil Tank Farm, to which the IOC had unofficially disagreed. Meanwhile, United National Party (UNP)-affiliated Jathika Sevaka Sangamaya (JSS) CPC Branch President Ananda Palitha said that during the previous Government, there was an attempt to lease out the China Bay Oil Tank Farm, which had now been given on lease to the IOC with their consent last year, keeping 15 tanks with the CPC, which was opposed by the then Opposition. As a result, the CPC had lost the capacity. If the Government had gone ahead with the agreement, the tanks could have been used for storage. The CPC unions claimed that if the CPC had ownership of the tank farm, it could have purchased fuel at lower rates earlier this year and stored it there.  


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