Fuel Overview

Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) and Lanka IOC are the dominant companies in Sri Lanka's retail sector. The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation was set up as a state enterprise by Act. No. 28 of 1961 in Parliament and further amendments carried out subsequently. The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation entered import, distribution and marketing of petroleum products throughout the island. Existing Oil Refinery at Sapugaskanda was commissioned in August 1969 to process 38000 BPSD (5200 Mt/d) of Iranian light crude oil. Even though the capacity of crude distiller was 5200 Mt/d, unit was capable of processing 5800 MT/day of crude oil. Crude oils similar to Iranian light such as Upper Zakum, Arabian light were able to process in the plant meeting required specifications. LPG production was started in 1971 and Naphtha Merox unit was modified to process LPG. SBPS production was also started in 1971 using existing facilities. Crude Distiller unit was de-bottlenecked to increase the refining capacity to 50000 BPSD (6900 MT/day).

A new Kerosene Merox unit was installed and commissioned in 1981 to process Jet A1 and high energy consuming Kerosene unifiner was not operated thereafter. Crude distiller unit was again revamped to process far Eastern crudes such as Miri light and Naphtha unifiner capacity was increased to 1100 MT/day in 1992. Platformer unit was revamped in 1999 to increase its capacity to 650 MT/day to meet increasing gasoline demand and to phase out Lead in gasoline. Existing Kerosene unifiner was revamped to process diesel and the existing gas oil unifiner was rehabilitated in 2003 to meet the Sulphur specification of 0.3 % WT in Diesel.

In addition, small and medium scale energy conservation projects were implemented to make the refinery operation energy efficient. Refinery consists of Utilities section which supplies electricity, water, steam, and instrument air etc., required for plant operation. In addition, 65 tanks are located within the refinery for crude oil, finished and intermediate products and four crude oil tanks at Orugodawatte tank farm.

 www.ceypetco.gov.lk

For more information on government and fuel provider contact details, please see the following links: 4.1 Government Contact List and 4.7 Fuel Providers Contact List.

Information may also be found at: http://www.mytravelcost.com/petrol-prices/ which is updated monthly. 

Fuel Pricing

CPC is exposed to the commodity price risk of petroleum products (both crude and finished products) and other raw materials imported from overseas countries in USD and other currencies. Cost reflective price mechanisms are not in place in deciding domestic retail sales prices of petroleum products in line with international oil price movements. 

The outstation spot prices will incorporate the same transport differential as before.

Seasonal Variations 

Fuel Transportation

Fuel is transported by rail and road for distribution to dealers Island wide, the constraints and bottlenecks encountered by the bowsers are mostly narrow roads and heavy traffic. Delays in unloading the cargo of petroleum at the stations due to various reasons are also a major constraints

Supply, Demand and Challenges

 Sri Lanka has long been an importer of refined products for domestic consumption. But, after the refinery was commissioned in 1969, the dependence on imported refined products came down drastically for many categories of petroleum products. In some years until the end of the 1980s, the entirety of domestic demand has been met from the local production at the refinery. However, this situation has changed since the late 1980s. As such, country’s demand for petroleum products has been rising at a rapid rate since the 1990s in both volume and value terms. The domestic petroleum demand at present is around 4,200 million liters a year (2011), out of which roughly a third is met from locally refined imported crude oil. The remainder is imported as refined products. Of the total expenditure on petroleum imports about 62.5 percent is spent on refined products whereas expenditure on crude oil is 37.5 percent (2011)14. The quantities of refined petroleum products, in particular petrol, have grown at the rate of 10 percent during 2007-11 period whereas kerosene demand has gone down over the same period on an average of 2 percent a year.

http://www.colombopage.com

https://sljda.sljol.info/articles/10.4038/sljda.v4i0.7102/galley/5491/download/

Standards, Quality and Testing

The Sapugaskanda Oil Refinery Facility overhaul saw around the clock inspections, quality testing and maintenance of equipment. This year’s maintenance of the refinery importantly replaced several critical equipment in the Crude Distillation, Naphtha Hydrotreater, Reformer and Gas oil Hydrotreater units that were nearly 50 years old. Simultaneously during this period, maintenance work took place in the Utilities and the Tank Farm areas.

Further, the entire renovation process was monitored closely by a quality assurance team and stringent safety standards and global quality testing procedures by The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) and the American Petroleum Institute (API) were followed.

There are National testing laboratories for testing the quality of the fuel.

Disclaimer: Inclusion of company information in the LCA does not imply any business relationship between the supplier and WFP / Logistics Cluster, and is used solely as a determinant of services, and capacities.

Please note: WFP / Logistics Cluster maintain complete impartiality and are not in a position to endorse, comment on any company's suitability as a reputable service provider.