Cabinet has approved the procurement of 450,000 barrels of Omani light crude oil for the Sapugaskanda oil refinery from a Cypriot commodity trading firm on an unsolicited tender, The Sunday Times reported.
According to the newspaper, this is because the company had offered the dollar-strapped Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) six-months of credit.
Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila had said that this uninvited proposal came from the Terra Navis group in Cyprus,
“The tender was awarded on a trial basis. The consignment, for which an arrival date has not yet been set, will cost US$ 76 per barrel. The company was chosen from among many such unsolicited proposals currently being floated to the Government,” he revealed.
“In the recent past, the CPC had ordered crude from long-term suppliers who dispatched the shipments to Sri Lanka on the assurance that the money would be settled on time.”
But when the forex crisis is worsened, the vessels had to wait in the high seas for several days—the longest having been a period of 11 days, Gammapila said.
