Sri Lanka: Refinery Project Sri Lanka to Build 100 Mbpd Refinery with India

Sri Lanka will build a second refinery with a capacity of at least 100 Mbpd in a tie-up with Indian Oil Corp, a move that strengthens New Delhi's engagement with Colombo.

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New Delhi/India – India has been vying for major projects in the island nation where China has secured multi-billion dollar infrastructure projects including a $1.4 B high-end property development and others ranging from a coal plant to ports.

The head of state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corp. (CPC), TG Jayasinghe said that the new refinery will be built at the eastern port city of Trincomalee with the aim of exporting fuel. “Usually it takes four years to build a refinery,” he told Reuters adding that oil tanks for storage were already in place.

IOC’s local subsidiary, Lanka IOC operates 15 oil tanks out of the total 99 tanks there. Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year pledged to establish a petroleum hub in Trincomalee near the world’s second deepest natural harbor. Lanka IOC was given control of the Trincomalee oil tank farm in 2001 under a 30-year deal and the government has asked the company to jointly develop and operate the unused 84 tanks.

The nation’s sole oil refinery, state-run CPC’s decades-old 50 Mbpd plant, was originally configured to run on Iranian crude and Sri Lanka had to import more refined oil products after US sanctions caused it to stop imports from Iran. Oil Minister Chandima Weerakkody said that Sri Lanka will refurbish the existing refinery to refine ‘a variety of crudes’ and will award the contract through competitive bidding.

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