Fuel oil tender delayed

The Ceylon Petroleum Corp (Ceypetco) has delayed the award of a 12-month term tender to buy 360,000 tonnes of utility-grade fuel oil to conduct a further price review, a company source said on Tuesday.

The state-run refiner will extend the validity date for this tender by two weeks to April 29, as it seeks more time to examine bidders' prices and review the quality of fuel oil required by the power sector, he said.

"We have already notified bidders that we need another two weeks to decide," he added. Traders said the tender could be cancelled and re-offered to the market at a later date.

Ceypetco issued the tender last month on behalf of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), which was seeking supply for a new power plant in Muthurajawela.

The tender closed on April 1 and was originally expected to be awarded to Brazil's Petrobras, which offered to sell the low-sulphur fuel oil at a premium of $42.27 a tonne to Singapore spot 180-centistoke (cst) quotes.(Reuters)