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| Sunday, 22 December 2002 |
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LIOC to take over 100 filling stations Lanka IOC Private Ltd (LIOC) the wholly owned subsidiary of Indian Oil Corporation(IOC) will take over 100 retail filling stations by end of January 2003 including 13 stations in the Colombo city. The refurbishing of the stations to make filling a pleasure rather than a routine, with all modern conveniences including Information Kiosks, cyber cafes, dedicated lounges, ATMs, fast food centers, medical shops as well as IDD and DDD centers will commence next week and completed by end of June. IOC the only company in India featured in the list among the fortune 500 companies the leader in the downstream oil sector in India has invested US$ 62 million in Sri Lanka. The funds will be used for taking over of the 100 retail filling stations, taking of the tanks on a long term lease as well as entering into a joint venture with CPC and a third player for the business of petroleum storage. M. Nageswaran Managing Director of LIOC said that they are committed to reforming and developing the petroleum sector of the country by improving the quality of fuels and healthy competition. With LIOCs take over, Sri Lankans will be able to experience a different class of service on par with international standards but with Sri Lankan values using the same dealers and staff. "Initially there will be no difference in the prices between our stations and the stations owned by CPC but LIOC pricing will be based on import parity and will be from the cheapest source available in the market as servicing the customer is our top priority,"said Nageswaran. The lease agreements for the takeover of the tank farm in Trincomalee for 35 years are expected to be signed within the next 10 days. At present 15 tanks are in good condition while there is a total of 99 tanks each with a capacity of 12,250 kilolitres. The tanks will be developed as the need arises. The buffer storage provided by the tanks would provide the much needed energy security to Sri Lanka as the country is a net importer of petroleum products with a demand of 3.4MMTPA as against its refining capacity of about 2.2 MMTPA. The refinery capacity in India would be used to fill the existing gap between demand and supply in Sri Lanka through IOC. The plans for the Trincomalee tanks include refurbishing and strengthening the tanks, repairing of the pumphouse and pipelines, maximising the use of tanks and the harbour as well as providing cost effective energy solutions. Expressing his views on the pipeline project Nageswaran said that it is a economical and environmental frienldy way of transporting oil in Sri Lanka while the long term plan is to connect the pipelines of India and Sri Lanka. LIOC will also move into the lubricant market with the Servo branded lubricants which are being marketed in Sri Lanka at the moment. It is a market leader in India enjoying a market share of 42 percent among 53 other national and multinational players and Servo has over 450 lube grades. Floating of the joint venture together with CPC and the third player would take over the existing storage assets of CPC and also the new oil terminals under construction at Muthurajawela and BIA. CPC, LIOC and the third player will each hold one third of the business. In addition IOC has also signed a one year $100 million term contract in July to supply Sri Lanka with 30,000 tonnes of diesel and 10,000 tonnes of jet fuel a month. |
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