The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) is likely to run out of fuel shortly following a decision by the Ceylon Petroleum Storage Terminals Limited (CPSTL) to suspend fuel supplies to the former.
CPSTL has said that the CEB has an outstanding payment of over Rs. 90 billion and is also indirectly blocking the construction of a new pipeline to transfer fuel from vessels at sea to the Kollonawa oil storage facility.
CPSTL Managing Director Raj Abdeen has said that the current pipeline which transfers oil from the ship to Kollonawa has been experiencing daily breakdowns.
“The current line is nearly 50 years old, and there are leakages. We are in the process of laying a new pipeline. However, squatters in the area through which the pipeline is placed, are not allowing us to complete the project,” he has said.
Abdeen has noted that one-and-a-half kilometers of the pipeline has already been completed and only another 160 metres remains.
He has alleged that Minister of Power Energy and Business Development Ravi Karunanayake was involved in preventing the project from being completed.
A total of Rs 1.7 billion has been allocated for the new pipeline, Abdeen has said.
However, Minister Karunanayake has said that innocent people have been wrongfully bereaved of their homes.
“Innocent people have been displaced because of this pipeline and this incident took place in my electoral district. I cannot allow this to happen. It is my job to provide security for the people in my district and I will not allow the CPSTL to jeopardise that,” he has said.
As for the Rs. 90 billion debt owed by the CEB to the CPSTL, Karunanayake has said that it is not his responsibility but the responsibility of the Ministry of Finance.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s fuel capacity in case of an emergency currently stands at 13 to 14 days, Abdeen has said.
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