Greater risk in restarting Sapugaskanda without crude

COLOMBO (News 1st); Workers at the Sapugaskanda refinery say that there is a greater risk in restarting the refinery if kerosene cannot be ensured throughout.

The crude oil refinery in Sapugaskanda was reactivated after three months, with special crude oil being imported from Siberia for that purpose. However, workers at the refinery held a protest today (2) demanding for continuous crude oil supply to keep the refinery running.

Rangana Wijesinghe, President of the Collective to Protect the Sapugaskanda Refinery said that the Sapugaskanda refinery currently has  refined furnace oil and kerosene in storage tanks, which can be supplied to the Kolonnawa petroleum terminal, while  diesel and petrol can also be supplied in the coming days.

However, he said that the refinery will have to be closed down again if we new crude oil stocks are not received within 20 days.

Therefore, Wijesinghe pointed out that there is a greater risk when restarting the refinery, as hundreds of thousands of rupees are spent on closing the refinery and reopening it.