Sapugaskanda oil refinery will have to close for several weeks from tomorrow due to a shortage of crude oil, a spokesman for Ceylon Petroleum Storage Terminals told Lankasara toady.
He added that the ordered crude oil supply is due in late December and until then the crude oil will be available for refining only today.
He added that about 40% of Sri Lanka’s fuel supply is derived from the Sapugaskanda oil refinery and finished products have to be procured to reduce the shortage.
He said that 90,000 metric tons of crude oil is expected to arrive in the third week of December, which is enough to resume production.
However, he warned that the next crude oil order would be received in mid-January, and that the refinery would have to shut down again.
He also hinted that there could be a shortage of kerosene in the country in the future due to the lack of sufficient oil at this refinery.
The reason for this is that kerosene is produced as a by-product of the refining process and the government is not currently importing it.
He said that due to the shortage of LP gas, consumers who have converted to kerosene stoves will have to face a shortage of kerosene.
