- Another tanker en route
- Storage capacity adequate
A 91,000 MT consignment of Murban crude oil which arrived in November has begun to unload its consignment, with the process expected to end tomorrow (12), The Sunday Morning learns.
It is understood that the consignment is being unloaded through a new procurement modality, which the Government introduced last month to navigate around the forex shortage and the incurrence of demurrage when tankers remain offshore awaiting payments.
When contacted by The Sunday Morning, Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) Chairman Mohamed Uvais Mohamed confirmed that the Murban crude oil shipment was being unloaded and that the refinery would commence operations soon.
According to him, another Murban crude oil shipment is en route to Sri Lanka to sustain the refinery.
However, Mohamed stated that the CPC was still facing significant challenges in sourcing US Dollars needed to make payments for fuel shipments.
According to the CPC, there is adequate storage capacity in the country to store the 91,000 MT of Murban crude and the 99,000 MT of East Siberian Pacific Ocean (ESPO) crude oil stock which has already been unloaded under the new procurement modality last month.
The modality, which only two suppliers have agreed to, enables the State to request the tankers to unload crude or fuel consignments to CPC storage tanks ashore, which then function as bonded warehouses, releasing crude oil based on the payments made by the CPC on a daily basis. This is designed to help the CPC overcome challenges in finding between $ 80-85 million to pay for crude oil consignments in one go.
The Sunday Morning learns that the inbound crude oil shipment may arrive at Colombo Port as early as this week.
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Sapugaskanda to fire up this week
The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) is gearing up to recommence operations of the Sapugaskanda Refinery this week, with 15 December earmarked for the process to kick off, The Sunday Morning learns.
A senior official at the refinery confirmed that with the unloading of the second crude oil shipment, the process to recommence refining at the ageing plant was scheduled to begin on Thursday (15).
The refinery has the capacity to supply nearly 30% of the national fuel requirement when using the most efficient crude oil and when used in an uninterrupted manner.
According to CPC data, the Sapugaskanda Refinery, built to run efficiently on Iranian Light crude oil, can refine 5,300 MT of ESPO crude per day to produce 373 MT of octane 92 petrol, 1,246 MT of auto diesel, 680 MT of kerosene, 261 MT of naphtha, and 2,400 MT of fuel oil variations.
The refinery produces diesel, petrol, and kerosene at a better efficiency when using Murban crude oil as opposed to ESPO.