31 March 2022 12:00 am Views - 161
By Ajith Siriwardana
The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation yesterday said they would be able to supply fuel including diesel, petrol and jet fuel without any issue in April as fuel shipments would be received according to the schedule under the Indian Line of Credit facility.
CPC Chairman Sumith Wijesinghe told a news conference at the Presidential Media Center that fuel consumption has unusually gone up by about 35 percent this year when compared to previous years.
He said nearly US$ 1.2 billion had been spent for fuel imports during the first three months of this year and that over US$ 5 billion would be needed to import fuel for rest of the year if prices remained at present rate.
“This is a remarkable increase reported after 15 years. Only US$ 2.5 billion was spent for fuel imports last year. We had to spend US$ 1.2 billion within just three months this year,” he said.
He said a fuel shipment which cost around US$ 25 million has gone up to US$ 45 to 55 million by now.
Wijesinghe said diesel consumption has gone up unusually this year and added that it was only 139,000 MTs of diesel was consumed in January last year. However, it has gone up to 198,000 MTs in January this year. It has further gone up to 211,000 MTs in March this year. This is an unusual consumption. It should be found out why it has gone up considerably even when vehicle import has also been suspended for two years now,” he said.