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US$ 600 m oil refinery at Sapugaskanda

The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation says that the new US Dollar 600 million project to build a state-of-the-art petroleum refinery at Sapugaskanda will be the biggest new investment in the country since the peace process was launched.

The CPC says that the proposal does not seek to privatize the corporation. President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga in a statement released yesterday expressed concern that the proposal aims to privatise the corporation, which she says is of "crucial strategic importance with implications for national security."

The CPC says it will be leasing out unproductive assets to a company called Global Energy and Industrial Operations and that the project will realize US dollars 10.67 millions annually to the corporation. The President has called GEIO an "entirely unknown entity of uncertain financial capability, unknown operational ability and unproven technical competence."

The President's statement also said that she has brought to the notice of Cabinet regarding the role of adviser to the Prime Minister R Paskaralingam in the project and added that she had objected to his appointment in writing. She also says that the award of the project violates procedural norms. The CPC says this proposal and another have got BOI approval.

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