8 January 2022 12:00 am Views - 843
The agreement to develop and refurbish 99 oil tanks located at the Trincomalee oil tank farm and the setting up of the Sri Lanka – India joint venture company ‘Trincomalee Petroleum Terminal Ltd’ (TPTL) for the purpose would be a blessing to Sri Lanka’s energy sector, as the tank farm would be used to its full potential after nearly 8 decades, Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila said.
The agreement between the two countries would pave the way for the use of the huge oil tank storage facility that had been neglected and unused to its full potential for nearly eight decades for national development, secure uninterrupted fuel supply to the country and also to earn foreign exchange, he added.
He told the media that under the conditions of the agreement, the Lanka Indian Oil Company (LIOC) would be allocated 14 tanks comprising 12,000 tonnes of oil each, 24 tanks to the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) and the remaining 61 tanks would come under the management of the newly set up TPTL.
The major shareholder with 51% shares of the TPTL would be the CPC and registered as a subsidiary of the national oil monopoly, the CPC and 49% would be vested with the TPTL. In short, the TPTL is a fully government owned company, he added.
“The books of the company will be subjected to the Auditor General’s review and also of the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) in Parliament and MPs are authorised to question affairs of the TPTL in Parliament. Therefore, the agreement to establish the joint venture company to run the entire oil tank farm of 99 would be done in an extremely transparent manner,” Minister Gammanpila stressed.
The use of tanks at the Trincomalee oil tank farm had been given to India on several occasions in 1987, 2003 and 2017. However, the terms of agreement to use 14 tanks for 30 years by the IOC in 2003 have been extended by another 34 years, Minister Gammanpila said.