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The petroleum refinery in Sapugaskanda is to be temporarily closed again from Monday (June 17) due to the problems with the quality of the refined fuel, an official has said.
According to informed sources the reason behind the closure is the octane number of the refined fuel having dropped to 88.
The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) has 3,500 metric tons of 88 octane fuel in storage without being able to distribute the stock to the market, according to sources.
The CPC cannot issue the refined fuel with a low octane number to the local market since the vehicles in Sri Lanka use 90and 95 octane fuel.
Ceylon Petroleum Corporation sources say that the reason for the loss of quality is using the crude oil imported from Oman. The refinery is tailored to use the crude imported from Iran and the sanctions imposed by the US on Iran had disturbed the crude supply to the refinery.
The production capacity of the refinery has dropped to 200 metric tons a day now due to the unavailability of Iranian light crude, the sources further said.