Govt to increase oil refining capacity

by Anura Maitipe

The Government has taken initiatives to increase the refining capacity of oil by 40 percent with an investment of Rs. 800 million, Minster of Petroleum and Petroleum Resources Development A. H. M. Fowzei told the Sunday Observer.

The country imports annually Rs 135 billion worth of oil and of this only 60 percent is refined at the Sapugaskanda oil refinery.

The rest is imported as a refined product.

This has created an additional burden to the State which spends Rs. 30 billion annually to import refined oil products, he said.

The government has taken steps to enhance the refine capacity of Sapugaskanda by an another 40 percent in order to meet the full refined oil need of the country, he said.

The capacity of the Sapugaskanda plant is not sufficient. The plant could refine only 60 percent of the total oil requirement of the country.

As a result the Petroleum Corporation is compelled to spend extra Rs. 30 billion annually to meet the oil requirement of the country, he said.

With the installation of the new plant foreign exchange could be saved and the Petroleum Corporation could be made more viable and profitable State owned enterprise, the Minister said.