President orders CPC to sell 50% of LPG output to Laugfs

Wednesday, 6 April 2011 00:12 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

PRESIDENT Mahinda Rajapaksa has given directions to the officials of the Ministry of Petroleum Industries to instruct the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) to supply 50% of the entire LP gas output of the refinery to Laugfs Gas PLC with immediate effect.

Laugfs Gas had an exclusive arrangement with CPC to purchase the entire LPG production from the time it entered into the LP Gas market. However, when the Government took over Shell Gas Lanka Ltd. and named it Litro Gas Lanka Ltd., CPC unilaterally decided to split the production on the basis of market share, giving 70% to Litro Gas Lanka and 30% to Laugfs Gas.

The President, whilst instructing the high officials to ignore the market share basis, assured Laugfs 50% of the LP Gas production according to the Government’s mission to safeguard and protect local industries.

This decision was a sequel to a meeting that took place on Monday at Temple Trees with the participation of Dr. P. B Jayasundera – Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Gamini Senerath – Additional Secretary to the President and Chairman of the Litro Gas Lanka Titus Jayawardena – Secretary to the Ministry of Petroleum Industries, Harry Jayawardena – CPC Chairman, W.K.H. Wegapitiya – Chairman of Laugfs Gas, U.K. Thilak De Silva – Managing Director of Laugfs Gas and Piyadasa Kudabalage – CEO of Litro Gas Lanka.