CPC to get Rs.854m insurance claim

By Ashwin Hemmathagama – Our Lobby Correspondent

Cash-strapped Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) is expected to recover Rs.854 million from an insurance claim compensating a faulty crude oil pipeline off the seas of Colombo port two years earlier.

 Deputy Minister of Petroleum Resources Development Anoma Gamage assured Parliament that action was taken to face similar situations with adequate spare parts and expertise. 

“The pipeline in question was imported from Italy at a cost of Rs.45 million. Actually, it was kept as a reserve. Unfortunately, it was used to replace the original pipe which broke before. So, the replacement pipe from Italy too broke after three months. Generally, a pipe can be used for three years, which we have followed in Sri Lanka. We have taken action to face similar issues in the future,” she said.

 Responding to a supplementary question, UNP MP Buddhika Pathirana raised a question as to why action was not taken against officers’ involved in importing the substandard pipe. Gamage acknowledged legal action should be taken in response. 

“It is essential to take action against the officers who were involved in importing the pipe from Italy. The technical evaluation committee was also to be blamed. We have sued the company involved in this transaction.”

 “Recently 12,900 liters of diesel seeped into the Nilwala River from a filling station in Akuressa. Such incidents pollute the sea and disturb the ecological balance,” MP Pathirana charged.

 In response, Deputy Minister Gamage blamed the filling station owners for not taking care of the storage tanks and the pump system. “The oil seepage to Nilwala was not the CPC’s fault. It is the responsibility of the filling station owners to look after the system.”