LIOC-CPC joint venture to develop Trinco tank farm: Minister

The Government proposes to establish a new venture between Lanka IOC and the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) to develop the 84 tanks located within the Trincomalee Tank Farm.

As per a decision Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe took in May, the proposed joint venture will develop 30 storage tanks during its first phase. 

Minister of Petroleum Resources Development Chandima Weerakkody, rejecting allegations over efforts taken to privatise the Trincomalee Tank Farm, detailed in Parliament last week the Government’s proposal to increase the storage capacity of the country and benefit from price fluctuations. “The technical report prepared by CPC engineers recommends reusing the storage tanks 37-41 and 73-76 after minor repairs. A new pipeline from the jetty to the railway storage tank should be reconstructed, making it possible to fill up the railway transport tankers,” said the Minister.

Reassessing of the agreement reached to check the ability to use tanks 36, 42, 43, 44 now used by Prima and the Sri Lanka Air Force for fuel storage and water for firefighting and establishing sentry huts in the upper tank farm and requesting the Navy and the Air Force to do regular security patrols are also in the agreement according to Minister Weerakkody.

“There are two pipelines connecting the railway carriage filling point with storage tanks 41, 40, 39, 48. As revealed during the field inspection these tanks should also be connected with the storage tanks 37, 38, 41, 73 and 76. According to this plan, we could increase the total storage capacity to 90,000 MT, enabling us to benefit from the global oil price fluctuations and to expand the operations of the CPC in Jaffna,” he added.  - AH