New oil refinery for IOC in Trinco?

Moves are afoot to explore the possibility of setting up an oil refinery in Trincomalee by Lanka IOC, the subsidiary of the Indian Oil Corporation.

"There is nothing formal. We have held talks with the Indian Oil Corporation to this effect. But there is yet to be any formal application," Petroleum and Petroleum Resources Development Minister A.H.M. Fowzie said.

Lanka IOC is the only private oil company other than the state-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) that operates retail petrol stations in Sri Lanka.

It has been incorporated to carry out retail marketing of petroleum products, bulk supply to industrial consumers, building and operating storage facilities at the Trincomalee Tank farm.

Lanka-IOC PLC Chairman Sarthak Behuria, in the annual report of the company, said the public sector giant was interested in setting up a refinery at Trincomalee in Eastern Sri Lanka after taking into account plans to increase the country's domestic refining capacity.

The annual demand for petroleum products is 4 million metric tons with the single existing refinery having a capacity of only 2 million metric tons per year.

Fowzie said there were things such as the demand for extending appropriate fiscal incentives from the Sri Lankan government sought by IOC for setting up the refinery that needed to be looked into.

(Economic Times of India)