Gammanpila claims all 99 tanks handed over to LIOC
Hashim accuses Gammanpila of lying
BY Shenal FernandoA tense situation broke out in Parliament yesterday (6) when Minister of Energy Udaya Gammanpila alleged that the Opposition members currently in the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), formerly of the United National Party (UNP), had during their tenure in power in 2003, handed over all 99 oil tanks of the Trincomalee oil tank farm to India. Responding to this allegation, Chief Opposition Whip MP Lakshman Kiriella stated that only 15 oil tanks have been given to Lanka IOC (LIOC) (a subsidiary of the state-owned Indian Oil Company [IOC]) and that the remaining 84 tanks belonged to Sri Lanka and were to be developed by Sri Lanka and India collaboratively. He further stated that unfortunately, this joint development didn’t occur but that this doesn’t mean the oil tanks were handed over to India.In response, Gammanpila made a reference to an agreement on hand under which he claimed that the UNP Government at the time had in fact leased all 99 oil tanks to India.Following this, SJB MP Kabir Hashim accused the Minister of Energy of lying and attempting to mislead the Parliament.“Please don’t lie. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed to reach an agreement in six months, whereas a decision was not made during that period and as a result, the LIOC has kept the tanks with them illegally. In 2005, you came into power making promises that it (Trincomalee oil tank farm) would be brought under you, which never happened even after 10 years. In addition, you allowed the LIOC to set up a production plant for lubricant oil, which could have been re-acquired at any time, whereas you did not do it then, and will not do it now either,” Hashim charged.In response, Gammanpila stated that he is ready to table the agreement he was referring to and challenged the Opposition to speak after seeing the agreement with their own eyes.“I will table the agreement and I challenge the Opposition to table the MoU they are referring to. Then, I want to see the Opposition talk,” remarked Gammanpila.Gammanpila went on to clarify that the agreement had been signed and it was specifically only the lease agreement that had not been signed, further stating that an ongoing argument would prove to be useless until he tables the agreement in question.The Trincomalee oil tank farm is located on an 850-acre land and contains 99 tanks, each with the capacity to hold 12,100 metric tonnes (MT) of oil.LIOC acquired a one-third stake in Ceylon Petroleum Storage Terminals Ltd. which operated the Trincomalee oil tank farm in 2003.Subsequently, LIOC entered into a MoU or agreement, as the case may be, with Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) for a 35-year lease to operate 32 of the 99 oil tanks for an annual payment of $ 100,000. However, parties were unable to finalise this 35-year lease due to external pressures.Accordingly, it is this MoU or agreement that was referred to by the ministers in their heated debate in Parliament yesterday.
