By Rathindra Kuruwita

Sri Lanka must pay 587 million US dollars for planned fuel imports, until mid-August, Minister of Power and Energy, Kanchana Wijesekera yesterday (03) told the media in Colombo.This amount was equal to 217 billion rupees, at an exchange rate of 367 rupees per dollar, he said.

On Monday, Sri Lanka had to pay the Indian Oil Company (IOC) 34 million dollars and another 76 million dollars to a Malaysian company. On 06 July another 34 million dollars will have to be paid to the IOC.

“On 08 July, we need to pay for three shipments. 19.95 million dollars to the IOC. 49.54 million dollars to Singapore company Vitol and 66.53 million dollars for United Arab Emirates-based Coral Energy DMCC . This comes to 136.2 million dollars. On 10 July we must pay 36.43 million dollars for a furnace oil shipment, and 82 million dollars to Coral for a shipment of crude oil. These 316 million dollars are for ships that will arrive in July,” he said.The Minister added that 122 million dollars had to be paid to the IOC for two ships carrying petrol and 67 million for one carrying diesel in the coming weeks.

“These ships will arrive by mid-August,” he said.

The Minister said that they must pay for suppliers upfront and initially the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) and the Treasury had insisted that they could allocate only 125 million US dollars for fuel imports.

“Given this limitation, we tried various methods to procure fuel, but without success. We tried new suppliers but that also led to many issues. So, ultimately, the President and Prime Minister decided that the Ministry has to be given money to purchase fuel,” he said.

Minister Wijesekera said that he had spoken to the Governor of the CBSL and Treasury Secretary for foreign currency to purchase fuel.

“It’s not easy. They have promised to give us rupees and we have to find dollars. We need to get the dollars from exporters or international banks. Will they give us dollars at 367 rupees? What will happen if they ask for a higher exchange rate? I will ask the Cabinet today to approve paying higher rates if the need arises,” he said.

Oil companies will only provide oil after payments are made because Sri Lanka owes these companies hundreds of million dollars. Between November 2021 and April 2022, alone CPC had to pay 326 million dollars to companies through the Bank of Ceylon, 242 million dollars through the People Bank and 80 million through other banks, he said.

“The CBSL Governor is talking to seven suppliers. He has given payment schedules so that weekly or monthly payments could be made. We have given them guarantees. Still, they won’t supply new shipments unless upfront payments are made.

Minister Wijesekera said Sri Lanka had, on 30 June, paid 11 million USD to buy 7500 metric tons of diesel from LIOC. The diesel consignment will be sent from LIOC facility in Trincomalee to Colombo today (04). By Sunday afternoon, CPC had 12,774 metric tons of diesel, 1,414 metric tons of petrol 92, 2647 metric tons of petrol 95, 233 metric tons of super diesel, 500 metric tons of jet fuel and 29,000 metric tons of furnace oil used to produce electricity, he said.The Minister said that the first fuel shipment to the country for July is a diesel shipment that will arrive on 08 or 09 July. This will be supplied by a UAE company. Singapore’s Vitol will send another ship carrying diesel between 11 and 14 July. Another diesel shipment might arrive between 15 and 17 July. However, this shipment had not been finalised yet, he said.

“On 22 or 23 July a patrol shipment will be provided by the IOC. The diesel shipment that might arrive between 15 and 17 July is also to be supplied by the IOC. The IOC has asked us to settle 50% of the payment by today and deposit the rest by Wednesday. We requested them to let us pay 30% by Wednesday. We have also spoken to the Malaysian government and they might provide us with 50,000 metric tons of petrol and 10,000 metric tons of kerosene. This has not been finalized. If this works out, we might get a petrol shipment by 10 or 11 July,” he said.

Wijesekera added that the crude oil shipment expected from UAE’s Coral will consist of 135,000 metric tons. On 12 August another crude oil ship is expected, he said.

Speaking about his visit to Qatar, Minister Wijesekera said he had met a number of officials and they might provide Sri Lanka diesel, crude oil, furnace oil and gas at a concessionary rate, at the discretion of the Emir of Qatar. “Even if this happens, it won’t happen overnight. If we need to buy oil, we could buy directly from their private companies, the Qatar officials said. Qatar is not an exporter of petrol or jet fuel. They are a gas giant, though. The Qatari officials said that they had proposed to build an LNG terminal in 2019, but there had been no response from Sri Lanka,” he said.

The Minister said that he had also spoken to the Qataris about oil exploration in Mannar.Minister Wijesekera said he had asked CPC officials to provide him with a procurement plan till December. He added that the CPC was overstaffed.

The Minister urged the expatriate Sri Lankan workers to send in remittances through the banking system and help revive the economy and ameliorate the suffering of fellow citizens.

“Once the fuel starts coming in the queues will disappear. I want to add another thing. There is now a token system in place. However, we have never asked for this system. What I said last month, announcing that we will only be providing fuel to essential services, was to give a token to people who were in the queue at that time. I specifically asked people not to join queues anew. Now only LIOC is distributing fuel to private vehicles, and they have started a token system. This is not what we wanted,” he said.