The Sri Lanka government on Sunday said that they hoped that the availability of fuel in the country would improve within a week with four delivery of fuel, including three diesels, likely to arrive this month.
Overcoming Media Briefing, Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekara said the delivery of diesel will reach Sri Lanka on July 8-9, July 11-14 and third delivery on July 15-17. He said the delivery of gasoline would reach Sri Lanka on July 22-23.
Meanwhile, due to the current lack of fuel, the Ministry of Education which is declared next week from July 4 to July 8 as a holiday week for all private schools and those approved by the state.
Parliamentary sessions are also limited to three days, not four normal days.
Starting last week, the state fuel entity Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) stops spending fuel to private vehicles by refilling only limited to important services.
Indian oil companies manage Lanka IOC to serve individual customers in a limited manner to trigger Miles Miles near more than 200 LIOC filling stations.
Wijesekara said the government had made an arrangement to buy fuel from storage LOOC in the East Trincomalee District.
“We have been on June 30, paying USD 11 million to LIOC for the delivery of gasoline scheduled to arrive on July 22,” said Wijesekara, added that on July 8, USD 19.95 million will be paid to the LIOC while also using the remaining amount below the line Indian credit (ILC) to complete payment.
On Monday, the Sri Lanka government announced that only important services that will operate from midnight to July 10 and all other operations will be suspended for a while because 22 million do not have enough fuel supply.
Sri Lanka’s economic crisis that has never happened before due to forex deficiencies has caused a severe crisis in the energy sector.
Lack of fuel has caused Serpentine queues in retailers and with the end of the credit path worth USD 700 million given by India, the pump has dried up.
The Sri Lanka government is exploring options to buy discount oil from Russia, because the island country really wants to refill its depleting fuel stock in the midst of an unprecedented economic crisis due to lack of foreign exchange reserves.
Minister of Strength and Energy Sri Lanka Kanchana Wijesekera flew to Qatar last week to negotiate a long -term fuel supply agreement with Gulf Nation.
Lanka IOC has expanded its distribution network by providing continuous fuel when the BPK pump becomes very dry.
A country that is almost bankrupt, with an acute foreign currency crisis resulting in default foreign debt, has announced in April that they suspended foreign debt payments of almost 7 billion USD because this year from around USD 25 billion because until 2026.
Sri Lanka’s total foreign debt was established in USD 51 billion.
The Sri Lankan people continue to misery in a long fuel and cooking gas queue because the government cannot find dollars to fund fuel imports and other important things.