Cruising Along

Apr.26 (LBO) – Lanka IOC, a unit of Fortune 500 Indian Oil Corportaion, is confident of maintaining uninterrupted supplies from their tank farm in Trincomalee, amidst rising military activity and closure of key roads in the North East area, a top official said. "We are maintaining our supply lines, in spite of security situation near our tank farms," Lanka IOCs Managing Director, K Ramakrishnan told LBO Wednesday.

The strategic A-9 road to the northern Jaffna peninsula was closed hours after the Tiger attack on Army Chief Sarath Fonseka, but a key road to the North-Eastern Trincomalee town falling through the Kantalai reservoir, remains open.

The Indian retailer acquired a 100-tank Trincomalee facility, on a 99-year lease when they began operations in February 2003 by acquiring 100 fuel sheds from state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corp (CPC).

The World War II vintage Trincomalee oil tank farm has 99 tanks each with a capacity of 12,250 kilolitres.

Just over 200 people work at the site and the farm is being considered strategically important for Sri Lanka and India.

At present around 15 of the 99 tanks in the farm are operational. However as business develops, LIOC plans to develop the nearby China Bay Tankages.

"We are fairly confident