Targeting Exercise

May 26, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is developing a scheme to pay fuel subsidies to bus operators that may cost the exchequer 7.0 billion rupees a year, officials said, after a steep rise in diesel pushed up fares. Sri Lanka has a practice of under-pricing diesel because authorities believe that inflation is a petroleum […]

Steep Rise

May 24, 2008 (LBO) – After dragging their feet for months Sri Lanka’s state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) jacked up diesel prices by an unprecedented 37 percent and petrol by 23 percent, while a unit of Indian Oil Corporation said it would follow suit. An International Monetary Fund study said this week that commodity markets […]

Fuel Mix

May 22, 2008 (LBO) – Indian Oil Corporation’s Sri Lanka unit raised diesel retail prices by 20 rupees to 100 rupees a litre putting pressure on the state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) which sells more fuel to follow suit. Before the increase, Lanka IOC says it was losing 43 rupees a litre from the sale […]

Black Gold

May 10, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is to award its first offshore oil exploration contract before the end of May, petroleum minister A H M Fowzie said. The ministry was preparing a paper on bids received for offshore exploration and its recommendation to submit to the cabinet of ministers for approval next week, he […]

Serendipity

May 09, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is to start searching for oil onshore after the accidental discovery of gas seeping from the ground, government officials said. Petroleum minister A H M Fowzie said Friday the government has received technical support from Egypt to start the initial exploration work. The accidental discovery of signs of […]

On Hold

May 09, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is keeping retail fuel prices at current levels despite crude oil prices soaring to new highs and mounting losses at the state oil retailer, Petroleum minister A H M Fowzie said. The state-owned oil refiner Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) had run up losses amounting to seven billion rupees […]

Energy Projects

April 29, 2008 (AFP) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday launched a 1.2-billion-dollar project largely funded by Tehran to upgrade Sri Lanka’s sole oil refinery, officials said. Ahmadinejad and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse planted an ebony sapling to launch work at the Sapugaskande refinery, just outside the capital Colombo. The four-year upgrade will […]

Pricing Issue

April 16, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka would raise fuel prices before the end of the month after running losses of 7.2 billion rupees in 2008, petroleum minister A H M Fowzie said. Up to April 15, the state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation had lost 1,856 million rupees. In March the utility had lost 3,769 million […]

Persian Present

April 16, 2008 (LBO) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will flag off a billion dollar oil refinery in Sri Lanka, as part of his state visit to the island later this month, officials said. . Sri Lanka’s petroleum minister A H M Fowzie said President Ahmadinejad would lay the foundation stone for the refinery on […]

Offshore Riches

April 15, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Central Bank has called for the setting up of a high-powered decision-making body, possibly headed by the president, to handle oil exploration. A well-structured institutional arrangement should exist for policy formulation, management, regulation, and supervision of oil exploration, development and production, it said in its newly released 2007 […]

Hedging Profits

April 15, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) said it had earned profits of 7 million US dollars in March reducing losses from retailing petroleum below-cost in that month. . “In March we lost 3,769 million rupees retailing fuel, but a hedging contract with Citibank earned us about 580 million rupees,” […]

Singleton

April 15, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka will only award one out of three offshore oil blocks in the north west of the island for which international oil companies gave bids, petroleum minister A H M Fowzie said. . “We are only evaluating the block for which we received three bids,” Fowzie told reporters Tuesday. […]

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