Lanka IOC sees industry growth

Demand for petroleum products :

Sanjeevi Jayasuriya

The petroleum industry is performing reasonably well due to the stable economic and political environment. It has recorded a 10 percent growth in keeping with the country’s economic growth. “The industry growth is excellent and encouraging. We expect the growth momentum to sustain and continue as the country’s rapid development activities are progressing islandwide at present.

K R Suresh Kumar

The petroleum industry will benefit from wide travelling especially from domestic travellers,” Lanka Indian Oil Company PLC (Lanka IOC) Managing Director K R Suresh Kumar told Daily News Business.

The company recorded marginal profits for the first half of this year and is expecting a better third quarter performance. “It is important that the current growth scenario continues. “We will provide value addition for our customers and measures will be taken to add more services to Lanka IOC’s 153 petroleum outlets. We are looking at setting up supermarkets and introducing state-of-the -art technology at the service facilities. We plan to seek local joint venture partners for these additional facilities,” he said.

The number of retail petrol sheds will be expanded in the near future covering areas that the Lanka IOC is not present at the moment.

As the company outlets are well-received by customers the expansion will derive more business.

The company will introduce additional services providing value addition for its customers in the coming months.

There will be five new branded service stations within the next two months. It also launched extra premium 95 high quality petroleum product targeting the high-end car owners which is eco-friendly. This product will be available in 20 petrol sheds by next month.

“We foresee more demand for petroleum products in the coming years. We also see a reasonable growth in the lubricant business. We will add more countries to our lubricant export market,” he said.

The Lanka IOC is actively supporting the Government’s road development activities It imports bitumen necessary for road repairs from the Middle East. This has a good demand and a growing business. The company is also looking at the bunkering business and plans to provide services at the Hambantota port when the need arises. This function is already operates in Colombo port.

“The petroleum industry has the Government’s support and there are positive moves taken to develop the industry. The action is needed to make operations viable and it is necessary to review prices constantly. The industry could be a key sector in development,” Kumar said. Lanka IOC owns 103 petrol sheds and the rest are operated on a franchise basis.