Total Failure

May 10, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s national power utility has started to restore power to the capital Colombo following an island-wide power failure, officials said. A failure in the transmission line from the Kelanitissa power generation complex to Biyagama, in the outskirts of Colombo, is believed to have set off a chain reaction, causing […]

Little Damage

April 29, 2007 (LBO) – The Indian and Dutch partners of petroleum facilities targeted by Tamil Tigers, which are jointly owned with the government of Sri Lanka, are confident of resuming normal business as the damage is minimal, officials said. The Tigers first hit a petroleum facility in Kolonnawa, a suburb of Colombo, which is […]

Take Off

April 26, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s international airport has re-opened after several flights were diverted as a precautionary measure following reports of a possible Tamil Tiger air raid, officials said. . Updated Military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said there was no attack but there were reports of two unidentified light aircraft being detected in […]

Oil Chase

April 26, 2007 (LBO) – India is eyeing two oil exploration blocks in Sri Lanka with two state oil firms engaging in open bidding as well as taking a block that is being given as a special favour by their southern neighbor, reports said. The United States is also hosting Sri Lanka’s petroleum officials at […]

Port Funds

April 25, 2007 (LBO) –The Asian Development Bank (ADB) Wednesday inked a deal with the Sri Lanka government to lend 300 million dollars to expand Colombo port that it said would help keep Sri Lanka’s shipping costs down. Finance Ministry secretary P.B. Jayasundera said the government will chip in with 180 million dollars, and expects […]

Port Consolidation

April 24, 2007 (LBO) – Maersk, the world’s largest container shipping line, is to buy a bigger stake in South Asia Gateway Terminals (SAGT), Colombo Port’s privatized transshipment facility, in a deal that sees Dubai Ports World selling out. Other shareholders of SAGT are Evergeen, SLPA, and multilateral lenders. Maersk is currently Colombo’s biggest customer […]

New Formula

April 23, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s largest petroleum retailer the state-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) may return to monthly price adjustments once it had recovered current losses, the country’s petroleum minister said. CPC shares Sri Lanka’s petroleum distribution with Lanka IOC, a unit of Indian Oil Corporation, which has 30 percent of the market. […]

Price Pressure

April 18, 2007 (LBO) – The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) which lost 1.5 billion rupees in 2006 is seeking a price hike to ward off an 800 million rupee loss by April, but the government is only permitting half the increase sought by the utility. Funds were also needed lay a new pipeline from Muthurajawela […]

Pricey Burn

April 16, 2007 (LBO) – A litre of diesel may be raised by five rupees tomorrow in the face of rising global oil prices, Ceylon Petroleum Corporation Chairman Ashantha de Mel said. “Though increases in fuel prices raised the price level, its overall impact on the future inflation will be to lower the inflation, since […]

Powerless

April 15, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka lost electricity power Sunday as the entire national electricity grid failed shortly before 3.00 pm local time, officials said. Sri Lanka has been under-investing in infrastructure for years, with most of the tax revenues going to sustain a bloated public service or the war. In the last two […]

Power Drive

April 09, 2007 – Sri Lanka Monday officially kicked off work on building a Japanese funded hydro power project in the island’s central hills, which will add 150 mega wattes of power to the national grid, the Japanese embassy here said.The 33.27 million dollar yen or 30 billion rupee Upper Kotmale project got off the […]

Hedge Win

April 09, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s petroleum utility will get a 33 million rupee payment this week on the expiry of its first hedging contract for imported diesel, a top official said. Last month the utility raised petroleum prices by 7 rupees a litre (about 30 rupee a gallon). Updated The utility first bought […]

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