• Minister says move aims to ease supply issues as private distributors cut deliveries

Energy Minister Anura Karunathilaka said steps are being taken to establish additional filling stations operated by the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) to ease fuel supply problems in the country.

Speaking to the media in Colombo, he said the Government had decided to establish new CPC filling stations to minimise difficulties faced by consumers during fuel supply disruptions.

He said private fuel suppliers had reduced the quantities they supplied to the market, citing difficulties in absorbing losses. In response, the CPC had increased its share of fuel supplied to the market to help ease the impact on consumers. “There were serious grievances among private suppliers, who said they were finding it difficult to bear these losses. As a result, they limited fuel supplies to the market to some extent. However, the CPC increased its share of the market supply from 55% to 80%,” he said.

Karunathilaka acknowledged the difficulties faced by private suppliers and urged them to remain patient until the current crisis eased, saying they would then have an opportunity to continue their businesses while earning a reasonable profit.

He added that, in some areas, filling station owners were the only people involved in operating their stations, creating additional difficulties during supply disruptions.

“We hope to establish new filling stations in the future to minimise the difficulties faced by fuel consumers during a crisis of this nature,” he said.

The Minister had previously warned that the Government would seek legal advice and consider action against private fuel suppliers if they continued to restrict supplies, in line with their agreements with the Government and the powers vested in the Ministry.

His remarks came amid fuel queues at filling stations in several parts of the country, with motorists reporting that some stations had fuel, including Octane 92 petrol, but were not releasing it to customers.

Private distributors, including Lanka Indian Oil Corporation (LIOC), China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) and RM Parks Private Limited, had reduced the quantities of fuel supplied to the market. However, the Ministry had stated that existing agreements did not empower it to direct these companies to release specific quantities of fuel to individual filling stations.